The Life of Birds — S01E05 — Fishing for a Living

00:01:22 Birds are masters of the air and can gather food from anywhere on the land.

00:03:16 Its extraordinary beak enables it to probe beneath large heavy boulders

00:05:35 It's the size of a small crow, and lives beside rivers and lakes all over North America.

00:08:06 It always has to juggle to get its catch off its harpoon.

00:10:24 And there was something.

00:12:50 These too are fishermen, but they don't wade, they skim.

00:14:37 The chicks have to be fed for six weeks and skimmers are faithful, hardworking parents,

00:16:19 and bits of bread thrown in by friendly humans.

00:18:05 They use up far more energy than their streamlined parents do.

00:20:10 But now he's found a crayfish. That will do for them.

00:22:06 There!

00:23:50 The shoebill stork has a massive and murderous beak.

00:26:50 before it has fully reacted to its exposure to the air, and closed its shell.

00:29:15 And when they do, they become the target of pelicans.

00:31:22 Boobies live on the coast, but their fishing grounds are way out in the open ocean.

00:34:03 The wings of a booby or a gull are far too long and insufficiently robust to be beaten underwater.

00:35:53 Penguins underwater look somewhat like dolphins

00:37:47 Nobody knows why it happens,

00:39:21 which it shares with a number of other ocean-going birds,

00:41:21 closely related to those Providence petrels on Lord Howe Island.

00:43:04 And they circle the globe in search of food.

00:44:39 It's called the ancient murrelet, and it doesn't feed its chick on land at all.

00:46:18 Most of them managed to get to the beach within ten minutes of leaving their holes.

00:48:07 is what we'll be looking at in the next programme about The Life of Birds.