Original air date: 21 October 1998
Above is a graphical presentation of the episode, a more detailed text version of the timeline is below
Selected sequences
Birds preying on bats (3’26-3’59) and insects (4’29-4’43)
Birds are relative late-comers to the skies; bats were there already …
Birds, actually what would be regarded as “birds of prey” (red-tailed hawk and a falcon), hunting bats
… and insects were there 200 years earlier still, but they became prey too
Birds preying on insects
The kiwi feeding in the night, using starlight camera (33’07-33’20)
A kiwi feeding on sandhoppers and Attenborough watching on
Introducing next episode:
“Most, like these handsome spotted shags, have retained that characteristic talent of birds, the ability to travel by air, and worldwide, birds have exploited that ability to an extraordinary degree. Some can make journeys of over a thousand miles without coming down to earth. Some can fly to altitudes of over 25,000 feet. Some can even fly backwards. How they manage to get into the air and sustain themselves there is what we will be looking at in the next programme.”