Have a listen: you’ll be rewarded by our show-stopping annual chorus of native birdsong. At the moment, that is. Shockingly, this year’s RSPB Great Garden Birdwatch revealed a decline in 16 out of the top 20 garden bird species. At the zoo, local birdsong mixes with exotic calls, from whistling ducks to squawking hornbills. Which are the loudest? No contest: I reckon they can probably hear our East African crowned cranes from Carlisle to Lancaster! Naming their enclosure ‘African Drylands’ proved prescient: climate change means precious water is increasingly diverted for agricultural use, meaning these birds are progressively endangered in the wild.