St. Kilda, Its People and Birds

It's Tough to Be a Bird

1969

Part cartoon and part documentary, this film offers a humorous look at birds and the ways people perceive them.

Attenborough and the Giant Egg

2011

David Attenborough returns to the island of Madagascar on a very personal quest. In 1960 he visited the island to film one of his first ever wildlife series, Zoo Quest. Whilst he was there, he acquired a giant egg. It was the egg of an extinct bird known as the 'elephant bird' - the largest bird that ever lived. It has been one of his most treasured possessions ever since. Fifty years older, he now returns to the island to find out more about this amazing creature and to see how the island has changed. Could the elephant bird's fate provide lessons that may help protect Madagascar's remaining wildlife? Using Zoo Quest archive and specially shot location footage, this film follows David as he revisits scenes from his youth and meets people at the front line of wildlife protection. On his return, scientists at Oxford University are able to reveal for the first time how old David's egg actually is - and what that might tell us about the legendary elephant bird.

Earthflight

2013

Nature documentary that takes a breathtaking flight on the wings of birds across six continents and experiences some of the world's greatest natural spectacles from a bird's-eye view.

Attenborough's Wonder of Eggs

2018

David Attenborough has a passion for birds' eggs. These remarkable structures nurture new life, protecting it from the outside world at the same time as allowing it to breathe. They are strong enough to withstand the full weight of an incubating parent and weak enough to allow a chick to break free. But how is an egg made? Why are they the shape they are? And perhaps most importantly, why lay an egg at all? Piece by piece, from creation to hatching, David reveals the wonder behind these miracles of nature.

Albatross

2013

A powerful visual journey into the heart of a gut-wrenching environmental tragedy, while delivering a profound message of healing and renewal.

Winged Seduction: Birds of Paradise

2012

Tim Laman a photographer for National Geographic and ornithologist Ed Scholes have been traveling to some of the most remote jungles the world has to offer in search of observing and photographing all 39 species of tropical bird. This particular group of birds are entitled as the “Birds of Paradise” and can be found in some of the last truly wild locations of New Guinea.

Endangered Species

2004

We have volunteered for the Earth Conservation Corps to restore the Anacostia river and the Washington wasteland where we live and often meet an early violent death. We are striving to return our nation's bird,the bald eagle, to our Nation's Capitol. If the eagles survive maybe we can too. We began filming this documentary in 1992 to show people our America. "Endangered Species" is our story. - Written by Antoine Woods

The Birders

2019

The film highlights legendary Colombian birdwatching guide Diego Calderon-Franco and National Geographic photographer/videographer Keith Ladzinski as they travel through Columbia, a nation that boasts one of the most diverse populations of birds in the world, to capture footage of rare and unique birds, some of which have never been filmed before.

Un fleuve invisible

2019

Kea: The Smartest Parrot

2005

Sir David Attenborough narrates a documentary about the Kea, the world's only alpine parrot. Playful and destructive, it attacks cars, starts landslides and terrorises New Zealand ski resorts but behind the bad behaviour there's a sharp mind at work. David tries to play chess with a kea and discovers how its cheeky character is the key to its survival.

Arjan's Big Year

2017

In 2016, Dutch birdwatcher Arjan Dwarshuis traveled the world to spot as many birds as possible in the span of one year, with the goal to break the big year world record (6042 species, set by Noah Strycker in 2015).

Bird Brain

2012

With a combination of wild observations and specially designed tests, this film will guide us through the latest research on bird intelligence, a journey which will re-define the meaning of ‘bird-brained’.

Flight Above the Marshes

1956

A magnificient poem of the tragic love between two wild ducks. The suicidal sacrifice of the male for his female, we do not witness a hunting scene, but a real tragedy of the birds Romeo and Juliet.

Glimpses of Bird Life

1910

Native British birds, from common gulls and cuckoos to the rare Richardson's Skua, are filmed in their natural habitat.

The Legend of Pale Male

2011

This is the true account of one of the most surprising and remarkable love stories in the history of New York. It begins in 1993, when a young man from Belgium looking to change his life has an unexpected encounter in Central Park. He meets a hawk. Not just any hawk, but a wild Redtail, a fierce predator that has not lived in the City for almost a hundred years. Compelled to follow this extraordinary creature, he buys a video camera and sets out to track the hawk.