Listen to Britain’s dawn chorus of 1976: the dramatic loss of birdsong in 50 years

Guardian recreates audio landscape of past filled by loud morning symphony before 73m wild birds were lost Imagine a deafening abundance of birdsong so loud it wakes your children at dawn; the chirrup of house sparrows, the chattering of starlings, the melody of the wren, and the clear high-pitched flute of blackbirds saturating the garden, reverberating around your local park, dominating your neighbourhood from early morning to evening twilight. So loud is the song of the thrush that the nat...

By Sandra Laville and Madeleine Finlay