01- To Fly or Not to Fly?

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.”

More episodes

02 - The Mastery of Flight
03- The Insatiable Appetite
04- Meat-Eaters
05- Fishing for a Living
06- Signals and Songs
07- Finding Partners
08 - The Demands of the Egg
09- The Problems of Parenthood
10- The Limits of Endurance