Get a bird on your phone

Phones will be singing instead of ringing as a new scheme to put bird songs on mobile telephones goes ahead.

Now, instead of the William Tell Overture or Mission Impossible, the haunting call of the great northern diver, the bubbling sounds of the lapwing or the trilling of nightingales will issue from pockets and handbags.

The plan comes from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Europe's largest conservation charity, which will earn 20p for every tone purchased. It has teamed up with phone service provider Mobile Avenue for the scheme.

Real bird calls have been digitally enhanced to provide as authentic a sound as possible, according to RSPB spokesman Andrew South, who added: "We believe our bird calls will be an antidote to the kind of dull and predictable tones available in mobile phones at the moment.

"Let's say it will add a bit of the atmosphere of the countryside to people's lives and it may cheer them up."