The Case of the Flying Dinosaur

The long running, often bitter scientific debate over the origin of birds and the evolution of flight.

Keeping Birds - A Documentary

Birds as pets is a foreign concept to many Singaporeans. Many would assume it to be an elderly man’s hobby. However, a new trend of keeping parrots is arising but many are still ignorant to the joys and issues associated with caring for these exotic pets. Focusing on three bird owners, this documentary discusses their experiences with keeping birds.

Birdsong

Ornithologist Seán Ronayne from Cobh, Co. Cork is on a mission to record the sound of every bird species in Ireland – that’s nearly 200 birds. Often joined by his partner Alba, he travels to some of the country’s most beautiful and remote locations to capture its most elusive species and soundscapes: the busy seabird colony of Skellig Michael; a native woodland free from road noise in the Burren; the corncrake stronghold of Tory Island; a solitary nest in the Donegal uplands. Along the way we get to know Seán, whose hypersensitivity to sound has proven both a struggle and a strength. At once inspiring and cautionary, Seán’s journey illustrates the beauty and importance of sound, and what listening can tell us about the state of our natural world.

Birdman of Alcatraz

After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.

Deutschlands Wilde Vögel 2

Jumta likums

In the early 1980’s two hundred pairs of common terns (Sterna hirundo) were forced to abandon their last natural nesting place on a river island near a major European capital Riga. Looking for a new habitat, the birds chose the flat pebbled roof of a concrete island – a printing house – in the middle of the city. The first generation of birds to grow up on this roof and fly to Southern Africa every winter have covered the distance from the Earth to the Moon. During the film various human attitudes towards the terns will emerge. The attitude of the birds is clear – they view things form above.

Dancing with the Birds

Some of the world's most majestic birds display delightfully captivating mating rituals, from flashy dancing to flaunting their colorful feathers.

Islands of the Vampire Birds

The story of Darwin's finches and their relationship with other creatures of the Galapagos; tracing their evolution, how the islands were formed and how it's main inhabitants got there.

Hummingbirds: Jewelled Messengers

David Attenborough narrates this close up look at these tiny pollinators captured in flight as never before. Acrobats of the air - flying jewels - iridescent partners of countless plants: hummingbirds are amongst the most remarkable creatures on our planet.

The Hummingbird Effect

Costa Rica's motto is Pura Vida - Pure Life - and this deceptively small country is bursting with some of the most spectacular wildlife and pristine ecosystems in the world. All this diversity thrives, in part, thanks to one surprising little creature: hummingbirds. Venture across Costa Rica's wild and rugged landscapes, from volcanic peaks to coastal jungle to misty cloud forests and discover the nation's dazzling diversity of hummingbirds. Watch how these tiny birds play an outsize role in maintaining some of the richest and wildest environments on Earth, where a whole community of creatures, such as macaws and monkeys, enjoys The Hummingbird Effect.

Deutschlands wilde Vögel

Broken Wings

Broken Wings is the story of a one-winged American black vulture named Adonis, and the two women in his life: Jayne, a charismatic waitress who has fed him every day for 10 years, and Ann, her spiritually-minded roommate.

A Great White Bird

This film documents the efforts of a group of Canadians and Americans to save the whooping crane from extinction. They display great determination in their dealings with this independent, pre-Ice Age creature. The issues of wild animals imprinting on people and the preservation of wild animals in captivity are examined in this film. Produced in cooperation with the Canadian Wildlife Service and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

Kerkini, le sanctuaire des oiseaux

Foyer

A second year film

Flyways

Flyways follows endangered migratory shorebirds as they travel their ancient migration routes around the planet. Using nanotechnology and global tracking from the International Space Station, the project will uncover the paths of the world’s greatest, feathered endurance athletes and shine a light on the scientists and international lawyers who are collaborating to save them.

To Teach a Bird to Fly

This experimental nature documentary by Minna Rainio and Mark Roberts depicts climate change and the wave of extinction from the point of view of our near future. Actually, it depicts the age we live in now, or rather its fateful consequences.

Villilintujen parissa

Finland’s first nature documentary. The filmmakers’ expedition leads them all the way to the Åland Islands and the Karelian Isthmus.

Birds of America

In the first half of the 19th century, the French ornithologist Jean-Jacques Audubon travelled to America to depict birdlife along the Mississippi River. Audubon was also a gifted painter. His life’s work in the form of the classic book ‘Birds of America’ is an invaluable documentation of both extinct species and an entire world of imagination. During the same period, early industrialisation and the expulsion of indigenous peoples was in full swing. The gorgeous film traces Audubon’s path around the South today. The displaced people’s descendants welcome us and retell history, while the deserted vistas of heavy industry stretch across the horizon. The magnificent, broad images in Jacques Loeuille’s atmospheric, modern adventure reminds us at the same time how little - and yet how much - is left of the nature that Audubon travelled around in. His paintings of the colourful birdlife of the South still belong to the most beautiful things you can imagine.

Trinado - Um Torneio de Cantos

Bird breeders talk about their great passion, bird singing competitions.