DVD BBC - Life Disc 2: Birds (2010)

BBC - Life Disc 2: Birds (2010)

Birds have one feature that no other animal possesses: feathers. This allows them to solve life’s challenges in radically different ways. The male spatule-tail hummingbird performs extraordinary aerial displays, using fast-beating wings and super-long iridescent tail feathers. The red-billed tropic bird uses its incredible agility to outmaneuver attacking frigate birds in a high-speed aerial “dogfight.” Red knots migrate 10,000 miles every spring from wintering grounds in Argentina to nesting sites in Canada; and Antarctica’s chinstrap penguins make an exhausting climb up the steep flanks of a glacier-covered volcano to get food to their chicks. Birds also use color, song and ingenuity to win the hearts of their mates: Clarke’s grebes perform a courtship dance that climaxes with the pair running on water in perfect synchrony; the male Vogelkop bowerbird employs bizarre rituals to impress a female; and in Kenya, 1,000 flamingos promenade side by side with neck feathers ruffled and heads held high.

Peter's DVD rating:
577 LIF QH 501.L544 2010

3:20	Marvellous Spatuletail Hummingbird male has elaborate tail and displays for female (Peruvian Andes)	5:30	Lammergeier (bearded vulture) can glide on 10-foot wings, steals bones left over by	7:00	Griffon Vultures and drops them on rocks; stomach juice more corrosive than battery acid (Simien Mountains of Ethiopia, 15,000 ft)
11:10	Red-billed Tropicbird stores fish in crop, stolen by	12:20	Magnificent Frigatebird in aerial fight (Little Tobago)	16:10	Red Knot fly 10,000 miles from Argentina to Arctic, 60 miles per day, stop in Delaware Bay to feed on Horseshoe Crab eggs (each bird eats 400,000 eggs), then fly nonstop to breeding grounds.
21:20	Lesser Flamingos nest in caustic soda lake in Ethiopia, cares for chick in nest	24:25	Chinstrap Penguins climb to nest on volcanic crater rim and find chick in a 150,000 colony (Deception Island, Antarctica)	29:30	Great White Pelicans fly in V formation (echelon) (Dassen Island, South Africa)
30:40	Cape Gannet nest on Malgas Island in 60,000 colony	29:30	Great White Pelican preys on Gannet chicks (unless too big to swallow) when both parents go fishing	34:30	Clark's Grebes courtship ritual
37:20	Sage Grouse courtship ritual in lek (Wyoming)	39:00	Birds of paradise courtship displays (New Guinea)	39:50	Vogelkop Bowerbird male decorates elaborate bower
45:40	More than a million congregate, more than 1000 perform Lesser Flamingos courtship promenade (Lake Bogoria, Kenya)

3:20 Marvellous Spatuletail Hummingbird	5:30 Lammergeier	7:00 Griffon Vultures
11:10 Red-billed Tropicbird	12:20 Magnificent Frigatebird	12:20 in aerial fight
16:10 Red Knot	16:10 Horseshoe Crab	21:20 Lesser Flamingos
24:25 Chinstrap Penguins	29:30 Great White Pelicans	30:40 Cape Gannet
29:30 Great White Pelican	34:30 Clark's Grebes courtship ritual	37:20 Sage Grouse
39:00 Birds of paradise	39:50 Vogelkop Bowerbird	45:40 Lesser Flamingos


Index	Feb 18, 2011	Peter Chen