Rock duo are set to get the bird

Jarvis Cocker and Peter Gabriel are spreading their wings to help make a BBC documentary on birdsong. The rock stars will perform on Why Birds Sing, an 80-minute film based on musician and philosopher David Rothenberg’s book. Also taking part in the BBC4 production are Beth Orton, Laurie Anderson and the aptly named Guillemots.

It will culminate in a unique musical composition combining human music and birdsong featuring Gabriel, the Guillemots and musician Simon Emmerson and the vocal talents of a stonechat, butcher bird, hoopoe, woodpecker and an eider duck. Sara Ramsden of makers Cheetah Television said: “Only on BBC4 can you see a man in his underpants pretending to be a song thrush while revealing the latest neuroscientific discovery of what’s really going on in a bird’s brain.”