The Life of Birds — S01E10 — The Limits of Endurance

00:00:36 The desolate wastes of the Antarctic -

00:02:53 But some must do more than satisfy their own needs.

00:04:50 Yet the courser, a relative of the plover's,

00:07:02 The African Rift Valley offers no such relief.

00:08:54 to maintain the size of the flocks.

00:11:24 of the spectacled eider.

00:13:35 Penguins, after all, don't fly.

00:14:56 enable the birds to visualize their surroundings so well

00:17:36 for themselves and their young.

00:19:59 they have devised a way of eating a food that normally they can't manage.

00:23:00 Birds that fed well today will head back tomorrow

00:24:48 In March, however,

00:27:03 that lies beyond our buildings

00:29:01 in one single 600-mile non-stop flight.

00:31:54 Birds reached all the islands of the Pacific

00:34:11 These New Zealand forests

00:36:06 The dodo, a pigeon that, safe in its island sanctuary of Mauritius,

00:37:37 Dickcissels in Venezuela also swarm in flocks millions strong.

00:39:23 Furthermore, 70% of their mainland habitat was destroyed.

00:41:58 The present population

00:44:54 such as the elephant that also figure in this celebration,

00:46:43 encouraged by the gestures and calls of its human foster parents.

00:49:05 He has a mechanized way of persuading his little flock to fly.

00:52:58 ..if we want to, and surely we should.