During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and for many a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song the Twelve Days of Christmas.

As actress Alison Steadman reveals during the cold mid-winter as they went about their business, those eight maids a milking were probably not thinking of a familiar bird which also produces milk. The domestic pigeon.

Producer : Andrew Dawes
Photograph: David England.