Original subtitles

[ Squawking ]

Hi, I'm Fred Kaufman,

executive producer of "Nature,"

and welcome to tonight's special presentation.

Over the last few years,

we've had great success with our bird shows,

as we featured the beauty and grace

of these incredible creatures.

We've also shown you the touching

and sometimes humorous side of our feathered friends.

Well, tonight, we've put together a collection

of the most compelling stories from our "Nature" library.

Some scenes you'll remember, and some will be new to you,

but there's no doubt that each story will stay with you

well after this broadcast.

So enjoy "Nature's Best of Birds,"

and I'll see you during intermission,

when we'll show you ways you can support

the quality programs you see on "Nature"

and this public television station.

NARRATOR: For 32 days, they've been developing,

growing, transforming.

Now, their time has come.

Urgently, they begin knocking on the door

to the outside world...

ready to break through.

[ Chirping ]

In their first moments of life,

you can tell that they are ancient creatures.

There are shades of dinosaur

or miniature dragon about them.

But as soon as they've had a chance to dry

and fluff up a little,

it's easy to see what they really are.

Bright-eyed, downy ducklings.

It's just the second day of her life.

She can't fly.

At this stage, she doesn't really

have any wings to speak of.

[ Chirping softly ]

But she can see the ground far below...

and hear her mother's calls.

[ Duck calling ]

Maybe courage comes from necessity...

Maybe it comes in knowing from birth exactly what to do.

She weighs less than an ounce

and lands softly and safely

in the leaf litter below.

And one by one,

ducklings rain down

from the tall oak tree.

MAN: And then suddenly,

the end of the egg fell away,

and this little poult fell out.

And he's wet, and he's confused,

and he's scrambling.

And it's obviously a desperate time.

And I made my little turkey sound

that I had been making to these eggs.

And the little turkey stopped immediately.

And his little shaking wet head rotated,

and he looked me square in the eyes.

And there was something very unambiguous

transpired in that moment.

And he identified me as the pair of eyes

belonging to the correct voice.

And in his way, he stumbled

and hopped across the floor of the incubator

and joined me at the edge of the shelf

and huddled up against my face and went to sleep.

And something also moved inside of me,

something very profound.

They're more alert, sensitive, and aware.

They're, in many ways, in fact, more intelligent.

Their understanding of the forest

is beyond my ability to comprehend.

They had a perfect memory

of what that entire forest was supposed to look like.

If any object was out of order,

if a new limb had fallen out of a tree,

they would find that limb very disturbing.

They would approach

a stump of a fallen tree or a rotted tree,

and that was a fascinating thing,

as most things are to wild Turkeys.

But, interestingly, when we approached

a very old stump,

of a tree that had been sawn down by loggers,

something about that

was very disturbing to a wild turkey.

I thought it was a fabulous and interesting response,

but I don't know why.

But here was a stump that had been cut

10, 15, 20 years before,

and yet there was something not right about that,

and the turkeys would find it very interesting

and actually disturbing.

NARRATOR: In a rainforest in southeastern Australia,

the stillness of early morning is broken

by a chorus of birdsong.

An assortment of calls rings through the trees.

They're some of Australia's finest.

The glossy black cockatoo.

[ Bird calling ]

The pied currawong.

[ Calling ]

The gray shrike-thrush.

[ Calling ]

Believe it or not,

every one of those calls is being produced

by this bird.

[ Chirping ]

He's a male lyre bird --

a male superb lyre bird, to be precise.

[ Producing various calls ]

His costume is as remarkable as his voice.

But to attract a female's attention,

to get her to notice those feathers,

he uses his voice.

His impressions are good --

so good, they're a dead-ringer for the genuine article.

[ Calling ]

This kookaburra is completely taken in.

[ Calling ]

[ Returns call ]

And lyre birds don't just mimic other birds --

they'll copy any sound within earshot --

natural or manmade.

[ Clicking ]

A camera click with the whir of a motor drive.

[ Click, whir ]

A set of human footsteps.

[ Thumping ]

The screech of a car's brakes.

[ Screeching ]

But even the most superb display

doesn't always pay off.

This female is not persuaded.

[ Various calls ]

He'll keep on calling,

even when breeding season is over.

After all, practice makes perfect.

Once an osprey spots something swimming in the water,

its most exquisite act begins.

Sometimes, they fish along the surface...

and it's all over in seconds,

like some sudden smash-and-grab.

But osprey are best known for their watery plunge.

As it catches sight of a fish,

there's a momentary hover.

Their focus can adjust

for the refraction effects of the water.

The dive is nearly vertical.

Just before hitting the water,

its legs are thrown forward.

Their wings are the most waterproof of any raptor.

Even more extraordinary is how they manage

to helicopter back up into the air.

Key to this feat are the large flight muscles

centered in the chest

and their characteristic v-shaped wings

bent at the wrist joint.

Even without a run-up or a perch,

they can generate air flow across their wings

to create lift.

Spearing and holding onto a wriggling fish isn't easy.

These birds are equipped for this, as well.

An osprey's feet are scaly, for extra gripping power,

and unlike other birds of prey, the outer toe is reversible

so they can grab with two toes forward and two toes back.

Once the fish is firmly held under wing,

the osprey heads to the nest.

The greatest angler on the river has got to be the kingfisher.

They're just master fishermen --

and they've got to be,

because they can pretty much eat

their own body weight

in food every day.

Most of the time, you just see

a flash of blue.

But to really see how beautiful they are,

you've got to slow them down.

The male coyote takes his to-go.

Now the eagle can move in.

But even he can't eat in peace.

The female coyote takes a modest share

but keeps an eye out for trouble.

When it strikes,

she can't see it coming.

Albatrosses are such huge birds,

they simply can't take off

without a strong headwind or a very long runway.

The chicks practice along the shore,

but, eventually,

their maiden flight

will have to be over open water.

This is not the place to linger.

Tiger sharks.

A dozen of them are drawn to the island

purposely to prey on the fledging chicks.

From the shore, others look on...

waiting for their moment.

One chick builds up courage and sets off.

No sooner is the youngster airborne

than the wind drops.

Amazingly,

it escapes.

Others also get away.

Once on the wing,

they'll never look back,

leaving their misfit phase behind them.

The party here on Lake Bogoria in Tanzania

is perhaps the greatest gathering of courting couples

in the animal world.

Thousands of flamingoes dance together,

all looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right.

Eye color and bright feathers are important --

the redder the better.

Once you've caught someone's eye,

it's about choosing a partner who will be loyal,

who will stick around.

Flamingoes like partners of their own age and size,

but the dance may reveal

much deeper insights into each other.

Many animals find symmetry attractive,

and the mirrored movements and coordinated head turns

may help find a mate that is more compatible.

They seem to prefer birds like themselves.

It's vital to make the right choice.

Flamingos nest

in the middle of soda lakes.

They are swamps of caustic mud

and among the hottest places on Earth.

It's a trek to find the nearest food and water,

and you can't leave the nest

to bake in the sun.

That means raising the chick

is impossible for a single parent,

and working together is crucial.

It gets above 120 degrees out here.

This is parenting at its toughest,

so the choice of partner made in the dance needs to be right.

Back with the rockhoppers,

the lonesome male is still waiting for his mate,

but his eye soon begins to wander.

Rockhopper cam has found an admirer.

The penguin displays

to show he's keen.

She might be a robot,

but it's still love at first sight.

Preening is a sign that the male's getting serious.

It seems the perfect match.

But some romances aren't meant to be.

The rockhopper's real mate is coming home...

and she's in quite a hurry.

She's a jealous bird.

Penguin cam suffers the consequences.

The couple reunite.

[ Squawking ]

They now only have eyes for each other.

Rockhopper cam may have been jilted,

but she picks herself right back up again...

while the pair have some catching up to do.

NARRATOR: In 1993, scientists from the University of Auckland

discovered that New Caledonian crows

had an ability long-thought to be

the domain of humans and great apes --

the ability to use tools.

Just how smart are these crows?

In an experiment that has never been tried before,

this crow will be challenged to push its abilities

to the next level.

And we're looking to see if the crow can act out

a three-step plan,

like think three chess moves into the future,

and pull up the string to get the short tool,

take the short tool to get the long tool,

and then take the long tool to get the food.

I'm really curious to see how this is gonna go.

NARRATOR: This is the first time this experiment

has ever been attempted,

and our cameras are there to record what happens.

It's one thing to use a tool to get food,

but to use a tool to get another tool to get food

requires much more complex cognitive powers.

This meta-tool use, as it's called, is considered to be

crucial in the evolution of humans.

In Latin America,

Kim Bostwick believes she has discovered

a contender for the kingbird's crown.

It's the manakin.

Kim's knowledge of the bird's ritual is now so intimate,

she knows every move.

So first thing you do is, you're sitting

on your perch, and, click, you fly away.

Once you're out there, you come swooping in,

do a loop-de-loo in the air,

land on the perch, and at the end of that,

what the males do is they lean over,

lift up their tail,

quiver the tail slightly,

and nail their feathers against their sides.

And now you're going to do

a moonwalk, and this is the only known case

of birds moonwalking, to my knowledge.

But they basically do these little steps backwards.

And it looks like

a Michael Jackson slide, it's very nice.

[ "Billie Jean" playing ]

JACKSON: ♪ Hee, hee, hee ♪

♪ Hee ♪

♪ Whoo ♪

NARRATOR: If Michael Jackson's moonwalk

can be found in the jungles of Central America,

then who knows what we might find next?

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: 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.

They were birds,

but unlike birds that anyone had ever seen before.

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

They may not have come from the Garden of Eden,

but they certainly deserve the name

that the first European scientists gave them --

the birds-of-paradise.

[ Bird calling ] That's the call of the superb.

He's making an advertising call.

And there he is.

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

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.

[Clicking]

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.

NARRATOR: The choreography of these tiny dancers

revolves around one talent in particular --

they can hover.

That's why hummingbirds seem so perfectly balanced in mid-air,

as if they were floating rather than flying.

Their wings are unlike those of any other birds.

With their flexible shoulders,

they can even move them in a figure eight --

and they gain lift from both sides.

The hummingbird's ability to hover

evolved for a simple reason --

it enables them to dine on nectar.

Since most flowers don't offer a place to perch,

hovering is their only alternative.

This unusual diet

has forged an evolutionary bond

between hummingbirds and flowers.

In the mountain forests of Ecuador,

there lives a hummingbird that goes to great lengths

in order to feed.

The swordbill lives up to its name.

Its four-inch bill is actually longer than its body.

It's easy to see why...

when you look at the flower on which it feeds.

The trumpet-like blossoms of the datura

hang straight down.

And its nectar is tucked away at the very top.

Because the nectar is so hard to reach,

only those with the right equipment can gain access.

Over time, the blossoms have grown longer,

and swordbills have evolved to keep up.

The datura has an ulterior motive --

it's bribing the swordbill

to gain its help in reproduction.

As the bird feeds, it's dusted with pollen,

which it carries to the next blossom.

The swordbill has become a datura specialist,

and that makes it the perfect pollinator.

This may be the ultimate in "flower power" --

a plant remaking a bird to do its bidding.

Getting up into the air is a complicated exercise,

especially for ducks.

They have relatively small and pointy wings

and two very different flight plans.

Surface dabbling ducks,

with small, light bodies,

can rise straight up,

ascending almost vertically into the air.

Heavier-bodied diving ducks

need a long watery runway

to get enough lift to take off...

And it takes a lot of flapping

to get a chubby little bufflehead airborne.

Once in the air,

ducks maintain a fast pace.

They don't have the wings for soaring.

A bald eagle looks effortless alongside hardworking pintails.

But even for an eagle,

ducks are hard to keep up with.

Given their body-to-wing ratio, ducks need to fly

at high speeds to fly at all.

Remarkably, delicate little green-winged teals

have been clocked at almost

100 miles an hour.

The two creatures work together.

The gannets are the dolphins' eyes in the sky.

From their high vantage point,

the gannets can see what the dolphins can't.

One finally spots what they're looking for.

He dives --

a signal to all his followers

that they've finally arrived.

60 feet down, they reach their target --

the great sardine run,

the biggest fish migration in the world.

But at this depth, the sardines are quite a challenge.

He comes up with nothing.

But guiding the dolphins here is about to pay off.

They attack from below, breaking up the shoals,

and driving them to the surface.

Now the sardines are much easier to catch.

But the commotion also attracts bronze whaler sharks.

At every dive, the birds now dice with death.

And some hunters could swallow a dozen gannets

in just one gulp.

The victors return to Bird Island,

the biggest Cape gannet colony in the world.

These are greylag geese,

the same species that Konrad Lorenz worked with.

And they are following me

because, like his geese,

they've been imprinted on a human being.

And that human being, of course,

is Rose.

See, they're all flying straight in line

behind one another,

just as they do in the wild,

because there's

a little turbulence from the end of the wing there,

which makes it easier for that one to get lift.

So they save energy by flying in this way.

But who could have dreamt that it would have been possible

to be sitting alongside one

as they do that?!

Look at them!

Isn't it wonderful?!

NARRATOR: For people who dream of flight,

the closest they can come to being a bird of prey

is to pilot one of the most nimble jets

in the U.S. military --

the F-22,

nicknamed the Raptor.

None of its predecessors has such a large percentage

of its surface that's adjustable for flight control.

MAN: The aircraft's controlled

by a whole lot of movable surfaces.

And if you noticed as you walked around this aircraft,

they're very large.

NARRATOR: A living raptor's wings and tail

are far more adjustable than any airplane's.

They can move through greater angles

and curve rather than merely swing like a door on a hinge,

and even fan out to change shape --

all of which adds up to more flight control.

MAN: The most G's I've ever pulled in a Raptor

is nine and a half.

Feels like a large weight just sitting on your lap,

but the problem is it's not just one section of your body --

it's all along your arms, in your face, in your neck.

It's every piece of your body.

Fighter pilots build up an addiction.

In a strange kind of way,

fighter pilots love to pull G forces.

NARRATOR: If fighter pilots could choose

their reincarnations, they'd come back as falcons.

They experience maximum G's

in one of the greatest demonstrations

of flight control in any bird.

Their signature attack -- the stoop.

When a peregrine locks onto a target,

it rolls, pulls its wings in, and plunges.

Coming out of a stoop,

the peregrine feels the highest forces known for large animals,

up to 25 G's.

It's in the hunt that peregrine falcons

show off an adjustability of flight surfaces

far beyond that of any aircraft.

It takes more than an adjustable tail

and wings to make the peregrine such a deadly hunter.

Almost every part of its body is tuned for high air speed.

At the speed of the stoop, a grain of sand

can strike the eye like a bullet.

So an extra eyelid, the nictitating membrane,

can be deployed to protect the eyeball.

And an unusual breathing system

keeps the lungs working at over 200 miles an hour.

Falcons have a tiny cone that's thought to keep air

from flowing around the nostrils and instead draws it in.

From nose to eyes to wings,

all parts of the peregrine's body

seem to contribute to its deadly attack.

MAN: Sometimes you'll see the falcon move its head a bit,

and then a half a second later, its body will follow.

Something traveling at that speed, you just don't see

these subtle moves that allow the peregrine falcon

to do what no other bird in the world can do.

NARRATOR: Ever since we've looked to the skies,

we've wanted to fly like the raptors.

And, step by humble step,

we're doing our best to make the dream of Icarus

a reality.