All language subtitles for Birds Of The Gods (2011)

Imagine creatures so beautiful...

that people thought they had come down
directly from Heaven.

So striking...

that the first Europeans to see them

thought they could only have escaped
from the Garden of Eden.

In fact, that Eden was New Guinea...

..one of the last inhabited islands
to be explored by Europeans.

And it remains virtually the only place

where you can see
these wonderful creatures.

They were birds,

but unlike birds
that anyone had ever seen before.

They brought the image of beauty
almost to the edge of absurdity.

And their displays

were even more extraordinary
and bizarre than their appearance

some of the most complex to be found
in the animal kingdom.

They may not have come
from the Garden of Eden,

but they certainly deserved the name

that the first European scientists
gave them -

the birds of paradise.

Yet much of what they do
is still unknown.

More than 150 years after

the first scientific observations
of these creatures,

in spite of innumerable expeditions

and countless hours
of scientific observation,

we are still only catching glimpses -
tantalising glimpses -

of these heavenly creatures.

A new generation of scientists,
and film crews,

are attempting to put that right.

But these remarkable birds
don't give up their secrets easily.

Another expedition is setting off
to look for birds of paradise.

But this one is different.

This one is being mounted
by the New Guinea people themselves.

A new generation
of local conservationists

are concerned that
paradise bird numbers may be falling.

(TWO-TONE SQUAWKING)

(HIGH-PITCHED THRUMMING)

This team is led by Miriam Supuma.

With her is bird expert Paul Igag.

MIRIAM: Ah! I've got my knickers wet!
(LAUGHING)

Miriam's love of nature began in
a small village school in the mountains.

To follow that passion,

she learned English,

got herself to university, and finished
her ecology fieldwork in Australia.

Over the next three months,

she aims to see and document
ten birds of paradise species.

She has agreed
to let our camera crew go with her.

They're starting with
the smallest of the family -

the king bird.

Miriam searches for signs.

You have to know what to look for...
and she does.

You can see peck marks
on this fruit here.

(REPEATED CHIRPS)

That's his call,

but she just can't see him.

It tends to like this area.

One of the reasons is because
of the light coming through.

They're show-off birds,
so they like to show their plumage

and the light complements
their bright plumage.

The signs are good.

They decide to build a hide.

It must be big enough
to seat her and the camera crew.

But there's a problem.

A dead banana tree
blocks the camera's view.

Miriam has it... gently pruned back!

(REPEATED SHRIEKING CALLS)

She's confident
the birds will return.

This is the mating season,
when they become less shy.

She discovered this
when she was still a student.

Working in the forest
early one morning,

she spotted a bird of paradise
high in the tree tops...

..and below it, another preening
its plumes in the morning sun.

(HIGH HONKING)

And then they displayed.

The sight changed her life.

On that day, I noticed about
six or seven birds of paradise,

singing and dancing, and it just
continued for five or ten minutes.

I stopped what I was doing -
I was measuring trees at the time.

I was looking at it -
just staring at it in awe.

(REPEATED SHRIEKING CALLS)

Naturalists fall in love with nature
and then come back for more.

Seven years on,
and experience has taught Miriam

that the best way to observe
the male king bird

is to find his display perch
and then wait for him to arrive.

Teaches you a lot of patience,
doesn't it?

And patience can often pay off.

Oh, there it is. Wow!

The king bird.

It's facing that way
with its back towards us.

You can see the red back.

It's gone up into the canopy.

He's a deep chilli-pepper red
with a snow-white breast.

Two long quills sprout from his tail,

each tipped by a green disc like a coin.

That was a...that was a rare moment.

Oh, there - there it is again. Wow!

She's thrilled.

With other males calling
in the forest nearby,

Miriam is sure that she's found
a good population here.

(NEARBY BIRD CHEEPING)

(TWO-TONE SQUAWKS)

The male king bird will call
to the females in the area.

If none come,
he will perform without them.

After puffing himself up,

he flicks his quills above his head
and waggles them,

making the little discs dance
in the air above him.

(TWO-TONE SQUAWKS)

He's still hoping for an audience.

Undeterred, he ends with a flourish.

He swings upside down
and locks his legs...

..and then he turns himself
into a pendulum.

(TWO-TONE SQUAWKS)

The king bird is a soloist.

The males of many other species
display in groups.

(REPEATED HOOTING)

(HIGHER-PITCHED, QUICKER HOOTING)

These are the greater birds of paradise.

Males assemble every day in one special
tree, waiting for a female to arrive.

When one does,
they all snap into action.

(URGENT HOOTING)

And she selects the one she prefers.

She's rewarded with a one-on-one,
starting with pecks on the head.

And eventually she accepts him.

While all the males may appear
equally gorgeous to our eyes,

females apparently
detect differences.

What's more, they nearly all mate
with the same male.

By selecting the finest plumes
in this way,

the females have increased the males'
beauty, generation after generation,

and so brought these magnificent dances
into existence.

(AEROPLANE ENGINE THROBS)

The spectacular beauty of their birds
fascinates the people of New Guinea,

as I discovered back in 1957.

I knew that the bird of paradise plumes
were important,

and I quickly discovered
just how important.

The plumes
are the equivalent of money

and an essential payment in the bargaining
that goes on between families

when fixing a wedding settlement...

(SINGING AND CHANTING)

..and when men want to dance.

And what I saw 50 years ago
is still going on today.

Goroka Town,
in the heart of the mountains.

It's festival time
and feathers are still essential headwear.

Go, go with the photograph
if you can, or...

It's a key moment in the year
for Miriam's research.

Look at these and then look
at what's on the headdresses.

The feathers of many different species
of bird are used in the headdresses,

and the team want to find out
how many come from birds of paradise.

These scenes are not very different
from those I filmed myself

half a century earlier.

RECORDING: There were 500 of these men,

stamping up and down monotonously
and unceasingly.

And as I watched them, I realised

that here was the reason why no-one
had brought us birds of paradise.

NARRATION: Miriam wants to see
my footage from 1957

so she can compare the numbers and species
used by dancers then and now.

RECORDING: Each man was wearing
the feathers of 30 or 40 birds.

At this one dance, we were seeing

the plumes of over 20,000
slaughtered birds of paradise.

NARRATION: The desire to possess
the beauty of the birds

is an ancient obsession
still alive in these tribal lands.

The island of New Guinea is huge.

1,000 miles long,

lying between Australia and the equator,

it was pushed up from the bottom
of the sea way back in geological time.

A few land mammals from Australia
managed to get here,

including some marsupials
such as the strange tree kangaroo.

But there are no indigenous
carnivorous mammals here.

With fruit growing all the year round,
this is indeed a paradise for birds.

(PLAINTIVE CRYING)

Then, some 30,000 years ago,

the greatest threat to their existence
walked in on two legs.

But today, there are people here
whose only aim is to protect the birds.

Paul Igag was brought up on the coast,
a fisherman's son.

Paul gave up the fishing life
to study biology.

He married a highland girl

and stayed up here
to pursue his love of forest birds.

(BIRDS WHISTLE AND CHIRP)

(PLAINTIVE CRYING)

The call of the raggiana bird of paradise.

(CRYING)

(WHISPERS) You can see a male up there
with full adult plumage.

He's trying to attract females.

Paul has seen many
of the forest's rarest bird species.

He builds platforms in the canopy
where he can sit quietly and wait.

Some birds are quite bold
and seem undisturbed by his presence.

(WHIRRING SQUAWKS)

Others are much more wary, like
the magnificent rifle bird of paradise.

Paul has been watching the birds
intensively for over 15 years.

(WHIRRING SQUAWKS)

His tracking skills
are crucial to the project.

(DISTANT HOOTING AND WHISTLING)

Together, Paul and Miriam
start to identify

the bird populations
that may need protection.

(WHIRRING SQUAWKS)

Paul is taking Miriam
to a remote village southeast of Goroka.

(MUSIC DROWNS SPEECH)

As I did on my own journey
to the interior,

they have to cross high mountain ranges
blanketed by forest.

Between these walls of rock
lie immense valleys like the Wahgi.

Hundreds of tribes have lived
on the island for thousands of years,

separated by these barriers
of water and rock.

800 languages have evolved,

some as different from one another
as English is to Chinese.

The language of Haia village
is spoken only here.

Even today, the only contact between
these people and the outside world

is the plane that takes away
their coffee beans.

It's a warm welcome back for Paul.

He's been coming here for the last
few years to help map tribal boundaries.

This forest belongs to the Haia people.

They have always been hunters,

but now they are helping to record
the rich wildlife.

One day, all this may become
a protected reserve.

For now, it's hundreds of square miles
of untouched mountain forest.

For the villagers, a wildlife reserve
could bring work and education.

There's a lot at stake.

The locals' hunting knowledge
is invaluable for the project.

Paul and Miriam need to find
natural paths and trees in fruit

if they are to locate
all the threatened species.

The three foot long tail feathers
of the male black sicklebill

are the reason why his kind
is almost extinct locally.

His plumes fetch the highest prices

but hunting here has now been banned.

This trip is to find
two special birds of paradise

that are still unprotected by law.

One of them can sometimes be seen
in the very early mornings,

busy on the floor
of the darkest parts of the forest.

Miriam is looking for
the parotia bird of paradise,

a bird with a very special dance.

The male parotia is most particular
about where he dances,

and this could be the place.

Paul is looking for
the magnificent bird of paradise,

a bird which also displays
close to the ground,

and is therefore
very vulnerable to hunters.

"Well, that's it," I said.

"That's the display court,
and we're going to get him there."

We didn't want to spend
a long time in that area because...

we want to come back
and see the birds, or...

our presence there might, you know...
you know like spoil everything.

(THUNDER)

Six inches of rain can fall
in a single day on Crater Mountain.

And during the downpours,

the birds of paradise
shelter beneath the leaves.

MIRIAM: I was sitting in the hide

thinking we might not get to see
anything because it did rain.

(WHISPERS) Bloody mosquitoes.

And then I heard a male parotia.

There were other males
calling as well.

NARRATION: Black as the blackest night,

he seems
to absorb all the light around him.

He is Lawes's parotia.

On his head,
six strange wire-like plumes,

each tipped with a black pennant.

On his chest, a shield
of iridescent green and gold.

This is his court,

a stage he has carefully cleared
so that he can dance unimpeded.

Clearing away last night's leaf fall
is essential housekeeping.

A female arrives.

She is comparatively drab
with none of his flashy glamour.

She's touring all the courts in
the neighbourhood to choose a mate.

He sets about impressing her.

But one of his rivals
has called by uninvited.

And he is followed by others.

More females arrive
and take up seats for the performance.

(SQUAWKING)

Tensions rise but nobody dances.

Suddenly, one of the intruders
mates with a female.

Another male does the same.

The court has become a free-for-all.

It's not what Miriam expected.

(WHISPERS) They just went straight
into mating without even any dance at all.

(WHISPERS) It's almost like skipping dinner
and getting straight into dessert.

It would be nice to see them
actually dancing.

Sitting in the hide for three or four
hours isn't fun with all the mosquitoes,

and you'd like to go away feeling
that you'd seen, you know the whole performance.

NARRATION: It's possible that the birds
had been disturbed

by the presence of humans
in the forest around.

It will be several days before
they venture back

to try another filming session.

Paul has been searching for
the magnificent bird of paradise

for a few days now,

listening for their calls
and quietly assessing their numbers.

He recently saw one far from here
in the town market.

All birds of paradise have a street value.

It's not illegal for local people
to hunt them or sell them.

They're a way of making some cash.

PAUL: This is a magnificent bird
of paradise.

The hunters have mounted the bird's skin,
complete with feathers, on a stick,

ready to be stuck into a headdress.

Another bird wanders by.

A pheasant pigeon,
feeding on the forest floor.

But this is a female magnificent.

And here's another.

(WHISPERS) There's the female.

Things look promising.

They can only have come for one reason.

A flicker of gold and there he is -

the magnificent bird of paradise.

The male magnificent is clearing away
leaves that have fallen on his court.

Doves and pigeons are helping
by picking up a few seeds.

He's stripping away moss and leaves,

letting shafts of sunlight
into his display court.

He wants to look his best.

PAUL: It's really interesting to see
a magnificent bird of paradise.

The feathers are quite bright and you
could see it out there.

It's like a... like a flame.

The stage seems set
but there's a distraction -

another male.

There's a standoff
between the two males...

Then the females take action.

Surprisingly,
they charge the intruder...

(SHORT, SHARP CALLS)

..and drive him out.

With his stage
now to himself,

the court-maker can give the most
interested female all his attention.

He begins to transform himself for her.

Puffing and pulsing
his breast feathers

creates a special effect -

an emerald-green,
heart-shaped breast shield

to dazzle her with.

Next to his eyes,
two tiny iridescent spots

flash at her.

You might think that this little jewel of
a bird was one of a kind.

But he has a cousin on an offshore island

that, in isolation,
has changed into a different species.

Wilson's bird of paradise.

Both have those sickle-shaped tail quills.

But his cousin has a bald head.

And his scalp is blue.

And whereas the magnificent's back
is golden yellow,

his cousin's back has turned red.

Different populations isolated in
different areas

are still evolving different plumes

to match the tastes of the local females.

PAUL: We were thinking,
"When is mating taking place?

"When is mating taking place?"

It's an activity
that probably goes on for a while,

until only the birds know
when it is the right time.

It's Paul's first sighting of
a magnificent bird of paradise

after 15 years working
in the forest.

Several days later,

Miriam returns to
the court of the parotia.

The male is back on his dancing ground.

But the camera can't get a proper view.

A log has dropped.

It's too late to build another hide.

Instead, the crew has to make adjustments.

The log is propped up.

There is a risk, of course,

that the court owner will notice
the change

and never come back.

But he does.

It's a very promising start.

He removes little bits of litter

and prepares to perform one of
the most complex dance routines

in the whole bird world.

But now there's trouble -
an intruder. Another male.

(AGGRESSIVE SQUAWKING)

But the owner of the court
is not put off.

And that is how it's supposed to be.

Seeing the parotia dance

gives Miriam an insight into
the intimate rituals of her people.

MIRIAM: When I was sitting in the hide,

I was thinking back to the people
here in Papua New Guinea,

they have these gatherings
where they go into a hut and they...

sit in a row and alternate
male-female, male-female.

They start singing and rocking their heads
back and forth.

It's like picking out
someone they fancy.

I can understand why, when they
do their traditional dance,

they put the feathers on.

Probably, to them, it represents
something that's... that's kind of sacred

they find in the forest,

and because of the birds' behaviour,
it's a very unique and special bird.

NARRATION: Papuans are steeped in
the mysteries of their tribal past.

Nobody knows it all,

only that birds and humans have
been together for thousands of years.

The desire to possess the beauty of
the birds is an ancient obsession.

Everywhere, the paradise birds
are hunted and their plumes treasured...

and stored on the rafters
in houses throughout the land.

These precious feathers
are kept in bamboo tubes,

ready to adorn the bodies
of a new generation,

to help them begin
a new cycle of human life.

(DRUMMING AND SINGING)

Miriam and her team
are counting feathers.

She wants clues as to which birds
are suffering most from hunting.

They question the dancers about where
and how they got their feathers.

(HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE)

She's keen to know about
one species in particular.

What I have here
is the blue bird of paradise.

I've seen it worn by some of
the highlanders on the headdress.

NARRATION: It's a very vulnerable bird
and its feathers fetch high prices.

MIRIAM: It's been hunted heavily
in the past.

I haven't seen it
displayed in the wild

and if I did,
that would be something.

NARRATION: In the meantime,
beliefs die hard,

but among them, there are some
that can actually protect the birds.

There's a fear of angering
the spirit world.

And where spirits live,
hunters will not go.

PAUL: Imagine a mountain that is
covered in forest.

No-one goes up there. People
believe that there is a spirit up there.

People don't touch that mountain,
so that forest remains intact.

For us, working in conservation,
it works perfectly -

it leaves that place unspoiled.

NARRATION: Early one morning,
Paul and Miriam

begin climbing up to part of the forest
where hunters fear to tread

to look for two special
birds of paradise.

Different species live at different
altitudes, depending on the rainfall

and the type of fruit trees
growing at different levels.

Even today, not a great deal
is known about these birds -

where they nest,

how they raise their young,

where the species overlap,
even interbreed.

Biologists are still
trying to find the answers.

Field work like this
brings its own delights.

MIRIAM: Ah! I got my knickers wet!

(LAUGHING)

MIRIAM: It's a challenge in itself
to working -

being a researcher
and working in a remote area.

Sometimes you get to spend
months and months out in the field

and you miss your comforts in life.

The trade-off is that
you get to listen to

birds singing in the morning.

You wake up to that every day.

NARRATION: Miriam is looking for
the blue bird of paradise.

In undisturbed forest, she hopes
to find populations of birds

that will be less wary of humans.

Paul is looking for
the superb bird of paradise,

whose breast feathers
are so sought-after.

It calls in the dense mid-canopy,

but it displays on or near the ground
and in open spaces.

A large fallen tree
and there's a hopeful sign here.

On one side,
some of the moss is missing.

Small dancing feet
could have rubbed it away.

This could be a good place
to watch for the superb.

But the weather is not good.

(WIND GUSTS)

In wind and rain,
birds, like people, take shelter.

There is nothing to be done except
wait for a break in the weather.

It's now getting late
in the birds' breeding cycle.

Their displays are becoming
less frequent and intense.

It's been six days
since the team built the hide

beside the fallen tree.

Paul arrives in the rain
at five each morning,

and leaves in the rain at noon.

And the fallen tree
is just remaining a fallen tree.

In a damp thicket, Miriam
is keeping vigil for the blue bird.

Day seven,

and finally a visitor to Paul's log,

but it's only a ground dove.

(SHRIEKING CALL)

That's the call of the superb.

He's making an advertising call
from a high point.

(SQUAWKING)

And it's not far from Paul's hide.

(SQUAWKING)

(WHISPERS) It's nearby.

NARRATION: After many days of solid rain,

the birds are quickly
becoming active again.

Miriam's bird, a blue bird,

has come to the edge of the thicket
and is calling.

(WHISPERS) I wonder if that's
the same bird or two different birds.

Paul's bird is calling non-stop.

(SHRIEKING CALLS)

And there he is.

There's that fabulous
green and blue breast shield.

(SHRIEKING)

He's trying to entice
a female down from the canopy.

(SQUAWKING)

But that's not her.

The call seems to irritate him.

And there she is.

He transforms himself.

A black cape appears behind his head.

Then he moves into
a trance-like state

and he dances.

(RHYTHMICAL CLICKING)

Success.

And here is that performance again.

All is not what it seems.

Those spots that look like eyes

are in fact feathers
reflecting the dawn light.

That clicking noise is not his wings
striking the wood,

but quills
flicking against one another,

like the clicking of fingers.

Bizarre and beautiful.

No wonder his breast shield
is so treasured by human dancers.

It's day nine.

Miriam is still waiting for
the blue bird to appear

in the thicket in front of her.

(DISTANT SHRIEKING)

He calls from nearby trees.
Could the hide be putting him off?

At last, he comes

and takes up his position
on his favourite branch

in his own special way.

(WHISPERS) Wow!

(WHISPERS) It's our lucky day.

(WHISPERS) I've never seen anything
like this, this is crazy.

NARRATION: It's a performance
of such exquisite beauty,

it seems unfair that
no female is here to see it.

He is serenading
like a love-struck Romeo,

but the balcony above is empty.

One can only sympathize.

Male birds of paradise have
played to empty seats

for hundreds of thousands
of years.

It has been their special
evolutionary destiny

to spend their lives
displaying their beauty.

It's what makes them
so extraordinary.

The next morning,
the male blue bird returns.

Suddenly, he stops.

Miriam has seen something off camera.

There's a female in the tree above.

(WHISPERS) She's here, she's here.

And now she's here,
his performance changes.

His pulsing gives way to a subtle
low buzzing that also throbs.

It's barely audible to human ears,

but the microphone picks it up
loud and clear.

It's an unearthly sound
that he only makes in her presence.

There's nothing like it to be heard
anywhere else in the bird world.

(BUZZING AND THROBBING)

MIRIAM: The vibrating movement
and the puffing of the chest

to expose the black patch
was something intimate.

And It only did that
when the female was next to him.

Just looking at it gave you a sense
of guilty pleasure, just looking at them.

It was something intimate
going on between the two birds.

NARRATION: Moving closer,
but without touching him,

the female seems to be studying
every feather of his vibrating body.

Surely he's done enough...

..but no.

MIRIAM: And then all of a sudden
she just flew away,

and it was like, "Oh, come on!"

For the male to go through all that,
it was excruciating,

just to put all that energy into it.

And I think for him it was like,
"OK, maybe we'll try another day."

Yeah.

(SQUAWKS)

NARRATION: Yet his effort
is the whole point.

Males can but try their best.

The rest is up to the females...
and it was ever thus.

(FORLORN SQUAWKING)

The plaintive call of the rejected
male echoes across the mountains.

These dances have been
performed here for millennia,

but for how much longer?

Miriam and her team have made
a good start on their project

but much more work needs to be done.

MIRIAM: We need numbers and in order
to do that, we need to do research,

so we need numbers so that we can see
how they are fluctuating

within the time
and with the different factors -

human population growth, hunting,
disturbance, forest clearing -

so we can understand
their conservation status better.

NARRATION: Meanwhile, to preserve the
feathers that the dancers already have,

the team are handing out mothballs.

These can be put inside
the bamboo tubes

in which the feathers are stored
and so save them from decay.

That should reduce the demand
for freshly hunted plumes.

MIRIAM: If we were to lose one of these
birds, or two, it could mean

the loss of something that people
hold close to their hearts.

NARRATION: Papua New Guineans are now
caring for their birds in a new way.

The birds have survived the
tribal culture for thousands of years

but the world is changing

and their forest is changing.

Miriam and Paul are starting
a new conservation movement

to ensure that generations to come

will still be able to delight in
these astonishing birds of paradise.

Subtitles by JohnCoffey_09