The Life of Birds is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the United Kingdom on 21 October 1998. A study of the evolution and habits of birds, it was the third of Attenborough's specialised surveys following his major trilogy that began with Life on Earth. Each of the ten 50-minute episodes discusses how the huge variety of birds in the world deal with a different aspect of their day-to-day existence. The series was produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in conjunction with BBC Worldwide Americas Inc. and PBS. The executive producer was Mike Salisbury and the music was composed by Ian Butcher and Steven Faux. It won a Peabody Award in 1999 for combining "spectacular imagery and impeccable science." Part of Attenborough's Life series of programmes, it was preceded by The Private Life of Plants (1995), and followed by The Life of Mammals (2002). Before the latter was transmitted, Attenborough presented State of the Planet (2000) and narrated The Blue Planet (2001).
Background In common with Attenborough's previous productions, the programmes include sequences that were filmed in many locales. The series took three years to make, involving visits to 42 countries. The subject matter had been covered before by Attenborough within Life on Earth, in an episode entitled "Lords of the Air", but now he was free to expand on it. However, by his own confession, despite being especially fascinated by one family, the birds of paradise, Attenborough was not an expert in ornithology. Nevertheless, the notion of an entire series devoted to the creatures excited him, as he would be able to not only communicate his findings to the viewing audience, but further his own knowledge as well. From the outset, the production team were determined that the sound of birds calling and singing would not be dubbed on to the filmed pictures afterwards: it would be recorded simultaneously. To that end, meticulous care was taken not to include man-made 'noises off' from the likes of cars and aeroplanes. For one particular sequence, Britain's dawn chorus, it was important that the movement of the beak and the expelled warm air was synchronous with the accompanying song. A trick used to entice some of the animals near the camera was to play a recording of the same species in the hope that the target would not only answer back, but investigate its source as well. This was employed in the episode "Signals and Songs", where Attenborough encouraged a superb lyrebird—one of nature's best mimics—to perform on cue. Despite such fortuity, filming on the series was not all plain sailing: in "Finding Partners", Attenborough was chased by a capercaillie, which didn't even stop when the presenter fell over. A technique that had been previously used for The Living Planet was again called for to film greylag geese in flight. The newly hatched goslings were imprinted with a human 'mother', and, when fully grown, were able to be photographed flying alongside an open-top car. Computer animation was utilised in the first episode to illustrate extinct species, such as the terror bird and the moa. Production was suddenly halted during a trip to New Zealand in early 1997 when Attenborough's wife, Jane, died:
The next filming trip for the Birds series was, of course, cancelled. But I could not simply abandon the series. Three quarters of the filming had been done. The film of some of the programmes had been edited but none of the commentaries had yet been written. There was a lot of work that I had to do—and I was grateful that this was so.
Segments that were shot after the passing of his wife include those in the Galápagos Islands, which were filmed in mid-1997.
Episodes Birds are the most accomplished aeronauts the world has ever seen. They fly high and low, at great speed, and very slowly. And always with extraordinary precision and control.
1. "To Fly or Not to Fly?"
Broadcast 21 October 1998, the first episode looks at how birds first took to the skies in the wake of the insects. It begins in Mexico, where Attenborough observes bats being outmaneuvered by a red-tailed hawk. Pterosaurs were the birds' forerunners, some 150 million years after dragonflies developed the means of flight, but eventually became extinct together with the dinosaurs. Birds had by then already evolved from early forms like Archaeopteryx, the first creature to possess feathers. Its ancestry can be traced through reptiles, and some current species, such as the flying lizard, possibly show paths this evolution may have taken. One of the biggest birds to have ever existed was the terror bird, which proliferated after dinosaurs vanished and stood up to 2.5 metres tall. By comparison, the ostrich, while not closely related, is the largest and heaviest living bird. It was probably the evasion of predators that drove most birds into the air, so their flightless cousins evolved because they had few enemies. Accordingly, such species are more likely to be found on islands, and Attenborough visits New Zealand to observe its great variety, most especially the kiwi. Also depicted is the moa, another huge creature that is now gone. The takahe is extremely rare, and high in the mountains of New Zealand, Attenborough discovers one from a population of only 40 pairs. Finally, another example on the brink of extinction is the kākāpō, which at one point numbered only 61 individuals. A male is heard calling — an immensely amplified deep note that can be heard at great distances from its nest.
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