Original air date: 25 November 1998
The graphical timeline above shows what happens in the episode, but a more detailed timeline is below
Birds specifically included in the dawn chorus are: Song thrush, wood pigeon, firecrest, chaffinch, wood warbler, pied flycatcher, a redstart, sedge warbler and a nightingale
Selected material:
A sunbittern challenging for some food (7’25-7’35)
The sunbittern transforms itself into a non-existent monster to challenge hawks for a nice meal
Camouflaging as a broken tree stump (8’15-10′)
Potoo’s camouflage – hiding away
Male saddleback searching for the challenger (37’36)
The saddlebacks in New Zealand have local dialects, the male knows where each individual comes from. When Attenborough plays a recording from a different island the male regards it as a serious challenge, but naturally can’t find the challenger when they are close to each other.
Communicating with woodpeckers (21’35-22’12)
Attenborough knocking on a tree (left) and the pair responding (right). In the end Attenborough stopped as if the challenger had left.
Coming up: “The range of relationships between male and female that these displays lead to is also much more varied than you might suppose. And it’s that, the most crucial stage in the life of any bird, that we’ll be looking at in the next programme.“