1 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:19,338 When I was a boy of nine, I read a book called The Malay Archipelago, 2 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:21,789 by the great 19th century naturalist, 3 00:00:21,870 --> 00:00:24,100 the co-proposer with Charles Darwin 4 00:00:24,190 --> 00:00:27,178 of the theory of evolution by natural selection, 5 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:30,428 Alfred Russel Wallace. This is it. 6 00:00:30,510 --> 00:00:34,048 And in it he describes his travels and explorations 7 00:00:34,149 --> 00:00:35,978 through Borneo and Sumatra, 8 00:00:36,070 --> 00:00:38,978 eastwards through the islands that are now Indonesia 9 00:00:39,070 --> 00:00:41,700 to the western end of New Guinea. 10 00:00:41,789 --> 00:00:46,899 And in it, I saw one illustration that thrilled me to the marrow. 11 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:51,789 It shows greater birds of paradise displaying in the forests of New Guinea 12 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:55,189 and being hunted by native plume hunters. 13 00:00:55,280 --> 00:01:00,590 It seemed to me then as now, that to see the greater bird of paradise in display 14 00:01:00,670 --> 00:01:03,899 must be one of the most thrilling sights in nature. 15 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:08,349 And it became my childhood ambition to go and do just that. 16 00:01:08,430 --> 00:01:12,659 Well, it's taken me 60 years, but here I am. 17 00:01:22,790 --> 00:01:24,739 (People chattering) 18 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:33,310 I first tried to see the birds back in 1957. 19 00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:36,188 But then I could only get to eastern New Guinea, 20 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:38,989 where the species Wallace saw doesn't occur. 21 00:01:39,069 --> 00:01:43,900 And there was another problem - the people used the plumes as money. 22 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:48,349 These are wedding gifts - pearl shells, mats sewn with cowrie shells 23 00:01:48,430 --> 00:01:52,420 but, most valuable of all birds of paradise skins, 24 00:01:52,510 --> 00:01:55,980 prepared in the traditional way by cutting off the legs and the wings, 25 00:01:56,069 --> 00:02:00,019 to fully reveal the plumes. There were 21 of them. 26 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:05,459 The bride seemed pleased, but for us, looking for live birds, 27 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:07,150 there was worse to come - 28 00:02:07,230 --> 00:02:09,180 a celebratory dance. 29 00:02:11,710 --> 00:02:15,330 Each man wore plumes of at least 40 birds of paradise, 30 00:02:15,430 --> 00:02:17,658 of several different kinds. 31 00:02:17,750 --> 00:02:21,658 Most astonishing were the sawtooth quills they wore through the nose. 32 00:02:21,750 --> 00:02:24,818 These came from the King of Saxony's bird, that then, 33 00:02:24,908 --> 00:02:28,340 very few naturalists had even seen alive. 34 00:02:28,430 --> 00:02:31,500 There seemed little chance of finding living birds here, 35 00:02:31,590 --> 00:02:34,340 so we decided to go into wilder country to the north. 36 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:38,110 The headman called for porters. 37 00:02:38,188 --> 00:02:40,460 We got 50. Once in the mountains, 38 00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:46,818 our baggage was taken over by people who didn't wear feathers in their hair. 39 00:02:46,908 --> 00:02:51,419 Instead, they had huge wigs, covered with bark cloth. 40 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:59,188 We heard calls of birds of paradise, we glimpsed them high in the trees, 41 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,150 but we couldn't find a place where we could film them. 42 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:06,150 And then, after three weeks one morning at dawn, 43 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:07,990 our luck changed. 44 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:10,710 Low down, in a casuarina tree 45 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:12,710 a plumed bird of paradise. 46 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:15,180 And there, his unplumed female. 47 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:22,750 With these pictures, we had achieved something. 48 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:25,348 As far as I knew this was the first film ever taken 49 00:03:25,430 --> 00:03:28,419 of a bird of paradise displaying in the wild. 50 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:30,188 But our film was not in colour 51 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:33,870 the species was smaller than the one that Wallace had seen 52 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:36,710 and there were not a dozen dancing birds, 53 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:38,389 there was just one. 54 00:03:39,750 --> 00:03:43,818 This was hardly the fulfilment of that boyhood ambition. 55 00:03:44,750 --> 00:03:48,580 But now, 40 years on, I'm trying again. 56 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:54,468 Wallace arrived in the Far East in 1854 57 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:57,830 but it was three years before he caught the first glimpse 58 00:03:57,908 --> 00:03:59,460 of a living bird of paradise. 59 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:02,188 And even then it must have been a very distant one. 60 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:06,990 For, as he wrote, the birds only display in the loftiest of trees. 61 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:10,949 And they are doing so in this one, right here. 62 00:04:21,310 --> 00:04:24,930 I reckon they are at least a hundred feet above the ground. 63 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:32,110 Even with modern binoculars, it isn't easy to see exactly what they are doing. 64 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,620 As far as I know Wallace wasn't able to climb the tree 65 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:39,910 to get a closer view of the birds, 66 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:44,069 but these days we've got ways of doing so relatively simply. 67 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:49,310 You fire a thin line, with a catapult, over one of those high branches, 68 00:04:49,389 --> 00:04:53,379 haul up a thicker rope, attach a system of counterweights, 69 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:57,350 then all you have to do, is to clip yourself on, and up you go. 70 00:05:15,189 --> 00:05:17,139 Down goes the counterweight. 71 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:23,750 And now, I'm leaving that dark world of the forest floor 72 00:05:23,829 --> 00:05:26,500 and really entering a completely new one. 73 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:29,709 Now I'm getting up into the canopy. 74 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:32,990 Into the world of the birds of paradise. 75 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:44,910 And here's the top. 76 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:52,230 The birds are in another emergent tree, just like this one, 77 00:05:52,310 --> 00:05:55,819 and I've got an absolutely clear view of them. 78 00:05:56,720 --> 00:05:59,149 It's unlikely that they're going to take fright 79 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:01,389 at my sudden appearance above the canopy, 80 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:05,910 because they've been using that tree for generation after generation, 81 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:09,778 and it will take a lot more than just me to put them off it. 82 00:06:16,310 --> 00:06:19,699 This, at last is Wallace's picture come to life. 83 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:23,670 He was the first European to glimpse this extraordinary spectacle, 84 00:06:23,750 --> 00:06:26,860 and he knew well in general terms, what was happening. 85 00:06:26,949 --> 00:06:29,778 This is a female and she's come to pick a mate 86 00:06:29,870 --> 00:06:33,060 from among the gorgeous males who are displaying. 87 00:06:44,310 --> 00:06:49,379 A young male. He's dancing even though he hasn't yet got his plumes. 88 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:52,629 They don't develop until he's six or seven years old. 89 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:10,550 There are several young males here, putting in a little dancing practice. 90 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,550 This, however is almost certainly a female, 91 00:07:15,629 --> 00:07:19,139 because the males are starting the second stage of their performance - 92 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:21,470 the bow, head down. 93 00:07:31,430 --> 00:07:34,740 The female has hopped onto the perch of the male of her choice - 94 00:07:34,829 --> 00:07:37,500 that's a straight invitation to mate. 95 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:45,870 Act Ill - the approach. 96 00:07:45,949 --> 00:07:47,899 Head up. 97 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:58,350 Act IV - the first physical contact. 98 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:24,338 It looks rough, but presumably she likes this sort of treatment. 99 00:08:24,430 --> 00:08:27,019 She could easily move away if she didn't. 100 00:08:35,668 --> 00:08:37,620 And that's it. 101 00:08:42,548 --> 00:08:44,850 And now there's another to be attended to. 102 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:48,308 Apparently, there's a queue on this particular perch. 103 00:09:00,908 --> 00:09:03,370 This is all he does as a father. 104 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:07,149 Now she'll fly away and raise her young unaided. 105 00:09:10,788 --> 00:09:13,980 The males on the other perches, in spite of all their efforts, 106 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:16,190 have no success at all. 107 00:09:25,750 --> 00:09:27,418 He's at it again! 108 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:30,418 But his partner is not reacting properly. 109 00:09:30,509 --> 00:09:32,500 She's facing away from him. 110 00:09:35,149 --> 00:09:37,940 He's got it wrong, this is a young male. 111 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:44,220 All the matings are taking place on this perch, with this male. 112 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:47,350 But are the females choosing the perch or the dancer? 113 00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:49,389 It's difficult to tell. 114 00:09:51,028 --> 00:09:53,778 But it's easy to see why these wonderful plumes 115 00:09:53,870 --> 00:09:56,168 should be so treasured by local people, 116 00:09:56,269 --> 00:10:01,019 and why, when the first examples arrived in Europe in the 16th century, 117 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:05,190 they should have created a sensation, as they did. 118 00:10:05,269 --> 00:10:09,019 Those first specimens had been prepared in the traditional way, 119 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:14,190 and had neither wings nor feet, and the books of the time showed them that way. 120 00:10:14,269 --> 00:10:18,139 But how could such creatures fly or perch? 121 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:22,070 This book explained. The birds had no need to do either 122 00:10:22,149 --> 00:10:25,259 because they floated in the sky, feeding on dew, 123 00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:28,028 and only fell to earth when they died. 124 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:30,500 They were literally birds of paradise. 125 00:10:31,908 --> 00:10:35,980 Even 200 years later, the illustrations involved a lot of guesswork. 126 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:39,190 For still no European had seen the living birds. 127 00:10:39,269 --> 00:10:42,019 This kind, for example, had not only feathers, 128 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:45,788 but 12 long, naked quills sprouting from its flanks. 129 00:10:46,788 --> 00:10:51,418 The artist did give it legs, but he was completely baffled by the plumes. 130 00:10:52,269 --> 00:10:56,500 By the end of the 19th century, thanks to the discoveries of Wallace and others 131 00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:59,190 the illustrations are much more accurate. 132 00:10:59,269 --> 00:11:02,379 This is that 12-quilled bird again. 133 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:06,750 But could it really have its strange quills, or wires, as they're called, 134 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:09,190 bent back over its body like this? 135 00:11:09,269 --> 00:11:11,019 It seems hardly likely. 136 00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:13,950 Perhaps the artist had been working from a specimen 137 00:11:14,028 --> 00:11:15,658 that had been badly packed. 138 00:11:15,750 --> 00:11:17,500 And what about this? 139 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:21,350 This is the sicklebill bird of paradise. 140 00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:26,190 Could it, in life, have great fans of plumes projecting above its wings, 141 00:11:26,269 --> 00:11:28,860 like fancy epaulettes with a purple rim? 142 00:11:36,629 --> 00:11:40,139 Even today, some of these species are little-known. 143 00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:45,259 Many display in the thick forest at dawn, when there is not enough light to film. 144 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:48,750 That was what had caused us such problems 40 years ago. 145 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:53,308 But now we can resolve that difficulty with special video cameras. 146 00:11:53,389 --> 00:11:55,820 And one of the species I most wanted to see 147 00:11:55,908 --> 00:12:00,019 is that bird with the improbable epaulettes, the black sicklebill. 148 00:12:01,028 --> 00:12:04,980 Its display in the wild has never been photographed or filmed, 149 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:07,788 it hasn't even been scientifically described. 150 00:12:07,870 --> 00:12:14,580 But the local people say that a male does display on a perch just near here, 151 00:12:14,668 --> 00:12:19,220 but it only does so at first light, just before dawn. 152 00:12:20,269 --> 00:12:24,700 So the only thing to do, is to sit down and wait. 153 00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:40,470 He's there! That dim, black shape on the sapling. 154 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:43,428 This really is seeing in the dark. 155 00:12:44,028 --> 00:12:45,580 (Calling) 156 00:12:46,629 --> 00:12:50,980 He's calling to attract females, but also to keep other males away. 157 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:54,389 This is his territory and he'll dance by himself. 158 00:12:58,870 --> 00:13:03,220 Those things like arms are not his wings, they're those epaulettes. 159 00:13:05,149 --> 00:13:07,220 So that's what he does with them! 160 00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:19,190 It's even more unlikely than the drawing. 161 00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:31,990 It's getting brighter. 162 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:38,028 Soon we should be able to see him just a little more clearly. 163 00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:52,668 There's that purple line on the epaulette. 164 00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:06,509 But there's still no sign of a female. 165 00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:20,058 Ah, well, obviously time for breakfast. 166 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:28,350 A pandanus tree. Sicklebills are particularly fond of its fruit, 167 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:30,668 and there's lots of it around. 168 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:36,428 That's what he's after - and there's a female half-hidden in the leaves. 169 00:14:44,788 --> 00:14:46,379 There's a second female. 170 00:14:56,360 --> 00:14:58,509 A third! 171 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:01,548 All three are almost certainly his mates, 172 00:15:01,629 --> 00:15:05,580 each building her own nest and feeding in his territory. 173 00:15:09,509 --> 00:15:12,899 Many birds of paradise species have females coloured like this - 174 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:16,149 brown above and speckled or barred beneath. 175 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:20,190 And looking at them, it's easy to see that they're all related, 176 00:15:20,269 --> 00:15:24,019 even though their males are so very different and various. 177 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:31,230 The New Guinea forest has an atmosphere all its own. 178 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:34,028 From one point of view, it's rather disappointing - 179 00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:38,710 you don't see many mammals, far fewer than in Africa or South American forests. 180 00:15:38,788 --> 00:15:42,899 But what this place lacks in mammals, it makes up for in birds. 181 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,028 Not that it's all that easy to see them. 182 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:48,788 You know they're around because you can hear them, 183 00:15:48,870 --> 00:15:53,538 but if you want to watch them, you have to move fairly quietly. 184 00:16:02,548 --> 00:16:05,538 And there is one of the smallest of the whole family. 185 00:16:05,629 --> 00:16:09,168 This is the one with those extraordinary sawtooth plumes - 186 00:16:09,269 --> 00:16:11,220 the King of Saxony's bird. 187 00:16:16,908 --> 00:16:21,538 There's nothing else remotely like these plumes in the whole of the bird world. 188 00:16:32,269 --> 00:16:34,220 He's calling for a female. 189 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:46,269 And it's not just his plumes that are unique - so is his way of dancing. 190 00:16:47,269 --> 00:16:49,220 (Soft hissing) 191 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:56,350 That hissing noise is his call. 192 00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:02,149 You can tell he's getting particularly excited 193 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:05,910 because he's erected the black feathers on his shoulders into a cape, 194 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,380 another of those transformation tricks 195 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:11,038 that seem to be a speciality of this family. 196 00:17:19,348 --> 00:17:23,298 He's so worked up, he's trying to mate with a tuft of moss! 197 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:28,630 A female, at last. 198 00:17:47,509 --> 00:17:49,660 Typical female colouring. 199 00:18:48,588 --> 00:18:51,338 And that's never been filmed before. 200 00:18:59,509 --> 00:19:01,259 New Guinea is a huge island. 201 00:19:01,348 --> 00:19:06,259 A thousand miles long from east to west, lying between Australia and the equator. 202 00:19:06,348 --> 00:19:10,338 It was rucked up from beneath the sea some 10,000,000 years ago, 203 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:12,230 as Australia drifted northwards 204 00:19:12,308 --> 00:19:16,009 and pushed against the Asian section of the earth's crust. 205 00:19:16,108 --> 00:19:20,298 The ancestors of the birds of paradise, probably starling-like creatures, 206 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:24,098 slowly spread from Asia, down chains of smaller islands 207 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,190 until they reached these vast forests. 208 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:32,630 And here, they evolved into a multitude of wildly different species, 209 00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:37,230 that, between them, exploit every kind of feather adornment you can imagine. 210 00:19:38,269 --> 00:19:43,210 But why did this great diversity of species come into existence? 211 00:19:43,308 --> 00:19:46,980 Well, New Guinea as well as being an immense island, 212 00:19:47,068 --> 00:19:49,500 is also an extremely varied one. 213 00:19:49,588 --> 00:19:55,220 Up here, I'm at 11,000 feet, and the land is much poorer in food for birds 214 00:19:55,308 --> 00:20:00,380 than the luxuriant tropical rainforests of lower altitudes. 215 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:03,470 And up here, there lives a bird of paradise 216 00:20:03,548 --> 00:20:08,700 that may give us a clue about the ancestors of the whole family. 217 00:20:10,588 --> 00:20:12,140 McGregor's bird of paradise. 218 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:16,150 And there's an obvious way in which it differs from most of its relations. 219 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:19,858 This is a pair - male and female look exactly the same. 220 00:20:26,028 --> 00:20:29,730 The reason they do so is connected with food. 221 00:20:30,788 --> 00:20:34,660 There's so little of it up here, that if nestlings are to get enough, 222 00:20:34,750 --> 00:20:37,460 the male has to help the female to collect it. 223 00:20:38,548 --> 00:20:40,538 So he can't have a lot of wives. 224 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:42,108 Just one. 225 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:46,548 And since he can't, therefore spend his time dancing in trees, 226 00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:51,028 he hasn't developed an extravagant costume in which to show off. 227 00:20:51,108 --> 00:20:55,420 His courtship is no more than this quick chase through the bushes. 228 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:09,230 At lower altitudes things are very different. 229 00:21:09,308 --> 00:21:14,058 The tropical heat and the heavy rains produce a really rich environment. 230 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:18,630 As there are no monkeys to munch the fruit or squirrels to gather the seeds, 231 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:21,390 there's plenty of food for birds. 232 00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:23,910 Here the females can raise their young unaided 233 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:26,950 and the males can concentrate on dancing. 234 00:21:27,028 --> 00:21:29,660 And since there are no cats or jackals, 235 00:21:29,750 --> 00:21:32,980 there's little danger in doing so on the ground. 236 00:21:34,108 --> 00:21:37,019 The superb bird of paradise does just that. 237 00:21:37,108 --> 00:21:40,298 And this log is his dancing stage. 238 00:21:42,788 --> 00:21:44,858 As well as his spectacular cravat, 239 00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:48,230 he's got a long sheaf of feathers at the back of his neck. 240 00:21:48,308 --> 00:21:51,740 Extraordinary in itself, but you wait till he unfurls it! 241 00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:57,108 Here's the female. Now there'll be some action. 242 00:22:35,548 --> 00:22:39,088 This is the arena of another displaying bird. 243 00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:42,670 I'm not on the mainland I've come to the island of Batanta 244 00:22:42,750 --> 00:22:45,578 which is separated by quite a narrow strait. 245 00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:49,509 But it has its own species of bird of paradise, 246 00:22:49,588 --> 00:22:51,970 that evolved here and lives nowhere else. 247 00:22:52,068 --> 00:22:54,818 And one way of trying to get a look at it, 248 00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:59,588 is to put some leaves on this arena, 249 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:03,509 because this bird is meticulously tidy. 250 00:23:13,828 --> 00:23:18,618 This isn't him. This is a pheasant pigeon. 251 00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:24,990 Maybe a trespasser on his patch will so infuriate him that he will come down. 252 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:28,509 (Bird calling) 253 00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:33,868 (Calling continues) 254 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:35,910 I can hear his calls. 255 00:23:38,308 --> 00:23:39,858 There he is. 256 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:41,910 (Calling) 257 00:23:42,788 --> 00:23:44,858 Wilson's bird of paradise. 258 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:50,670 He's got his own fashion gimmick - the bald look. 259 00:23:54,028 --> 00:23:57,338 There goes the first of the leaves that I dropped. 260 00:24:01,028 --> 00:24:04,858 He's really quite small - only the size of a starling. 261 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:40,750 Now he's starting cutting leaves. 262 00:24:40,828 --> 00:24:42,940 Littering the place up himself. 263 00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:52,548 Presumably he wants to get more light on the stage, 264 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,068 so that his colours show up. 265 00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:20,470 That looks like a female. 266 00:25:20,548 --> 00:25:24,940 She's got a slightly less brilliant blue head. 267 00:25:38,548 --> 00:25:40,700 But that's a young male. 268 00:25:40,788 --> 00:25:46,420 He's not yet got coloured feathers on his body, but his bald head is very blue, 269 00:25:46,509 --> 00:25:48,858 and he's behaving like a male too. 270 00:25:50,308 --> 00:25:53,980 ls he helping the boss by doing a bit of the housework? 271 00:25:54,068 --> 00:25:55,660 Probably not. 272 00:25:55,750 --> 00:25:59,528 It's more likely he's come here to practise the skills he's going to need 273 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,098 when he's old enough to have an arena of his own. 274 00:26:08,788 --> 00:26:10,740 She looks interested. 275 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:16,150 So does he. 276 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:29,630 (Calling) 277 00:27:06,750 --> 00:27:09,048 He's clearly not much of a dancer. 278 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:12,990 But with a costume like that who would need to be? 279 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,108 What an amazing bird! 280 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:28,230 I've seen lots of coloured illustrations of them 281 00:27:28,308 --> 00:27:30,740 I've seen mounted specimens in museums 282 00:27:30,828 --> 00:27:34,980 but nothing has prepared me for the splendour of this wonderful thing. 283 00:27:35,068 --> 00:27:40,190 It's as though it's illuminated from inside, the colours are incandescent. 284 00:27:41,548 --> 00:27:47,420 When Wallace collected a particularly spectacular specimen, 285 00:27:47,509 --> 00:27:53,608 he wrote in his book, "My heart began to beat violently, blood rushed to my head, 286 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,470 "and I felt more in danger of fainting 287 00:27:56,548 --> 00:28:00,740 "than when I had been in apprehension of immediate death. 288 00:28:00,828 --> 00:28:03,700 "I had a headache for the rest of the day." 289 00:28:03,788 --> 00:28:08,298 Well, I haven't got a headache, but I think I know how he felt. 290 00:28:16,348 --> 00:28:20,220 Half a dozen of the 40-odd species dance on the ground like that. 291 00:28:20,308 --> 00:28:25,250 To find another, we left the island of Batanta and went back to the mainland 292 00:28:25,348 --> 00:28:28,220 to the Arfak mountains in western New Guinea. 293 00:28:28,308 --> 00:28:30,338 The home of the Arfak parrotia. 294 00:28:34,788 --> 00:28:36,980 This is his display ground. 295 00:28:37,068 --> 00:28:39,980 Here too the forest floor has been cleared 296 00:28:40,068 --> 00:28:43,058 and the saplings stripped of their leaves. 297 00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:48,509 He's dressed entirely in black, except for that white disc on his forehead. 298 00:28:48,588 --> 00:28:51,500 Though there is a iridescent patch on his chest 299 00:28:51,588 --> 00:28:53,700 that he can reveal when he wants to. 300 00:28:53,788 --> 00:28:56,900 And he does have those six black pennants on his head. 301 00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,670 But he dazzles his mates not so much with his costum' e 302 00:29:00,750 --> 00:29:02,778 as with his choreography. 303 00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:08,230 And that being so, he is particularly keen on clearing his stage 304 00:29:08,308 --> 00:29:11,578 of anything that might trip up a dancer. 305 00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:35,950 Now he's miming, going through the motions of clearing away leaves, 306 00:29:36,028 --> 00:29:37,980 even though there aren't any. 307 00:29:44,028 --> 00:29:47,460 The stage is now absolutely immaculate. 308 00:29:54,750 --> 00:29:57,180 And here's another of those juveniles 309 00:29:57,269 --> 00:30:01,298 who come to the arenas of their elders and betters to practise. 310 00:30:22,750 --> 00:30:27,380 Amazing! But how sad that none of the girls are here to watch. 311 00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:39,660 The master is back. 312 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:48,230 An audience is assembling. 313 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:01,538 He is going to show how it should be done. 314 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:06,269 First, the warm-up - ritualised runs across the stage. 315 00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:20,750 A little more mimed leaf-clearing. 316 00:31:22,509 --> 00:31:25,460 Mounting excitement in the dress circle. 317 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,269 And now, the performance begins. 318 00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:34,910 The absence of ground predators, 319 00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:38,348 that has allowed some birds of paradise to display on the ground, 320 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:40,868 has been exploited by another family of birds, 321 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:44,430 that used to be thought to be close cousins of the birds of paradise, 322 00:32:44,509 --> 00:32:47,259 but are now thought to be somewhat distantly related. 323 00:32:47,348 --> 00:32:49,910 and this is one of their constructions. 324 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:53,538 This is not a nest, it's a jewel box. 325 00:32:54,308 --> 00:32:57,980 And these are not eggs, they are blue berries. 326 00:32:58,068 --> 00:33:00,420 The treasures of a male bowerbird. 327 00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:06,390 And here is one of those treasure-hoarding capitalists, 328 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,190 the flamed bowerbird. 329 00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:18,509 He may not have elaborate plumes, 330 00:33:18,588 --> 00:33:22,058 but his body feathers could scarcely be more brilliant. 331 00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:25,940 Those on his shoulders have a gloss like spun glass. 332 00:33:35,588 --> 00:33:38,578 But this is about all he does to display them. 333 00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:41,308 It's as if his ancestors once had big plumes, 334 00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:43,700 and although he hasn't inherited them, 335 00:33:43,788 --> 00:33:46,940 he still goes through the motions of displaying them. 336 00:33:49,750 --> 00:33:54,420 Whether that is so or not he now puts his faith in his jewels. 337 00:33:54,509 --> 00:33:57,578 And here's another to add to that collection. 338 00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,509 Now he's chewing up leaves into a paste. 339 00:34:05,588 --> 00:34:09,130 Perhaps he's trying to beautify the bower walls. 340 00:34:11,030 --> 00:34:12,980 The abundance of food in the forest 341 00:34:13,070 --> 00:34:15,630 has had the same effect on the bowerbird family 342 00:34:15,710 --> 00:34:18,380 as it has on their cousins the birds of paradise. 343 00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:21,150 It's enabled the males to become polygamists. 344 00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:27,340 But whereas birds of paradise attract their wives with plumes on their bodies, 345 00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:30,190 these birds do it with jewels and their bowers. 346 00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:38,909 And like plumes, the bowers have been elaborated to an extraordinary degree. 347 00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:42,909 Like this one, for example. This is a maypole bower. 348 00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:47,429 The builder - a drab little bird. 349 00:34:47,510 --> 00:34:50,099 But then, he relies even less on his feathers 350 00:34:50,190 --> 00:34:53,340 and much more on his skill as an architect and builder. 351 00:34:55,550 --> 00:34:58,539 And he's got something to be really proud of. 352 00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:07,230 He decorates this impressive construction 353 00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:09,590 with green lichen around the base. 354 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:29,309 And from the end of the twigs of the tower, he hangs frass - 355 00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:32,349 caterpillar droppings. 356 00:35:34,710 --> 00:35:37,739 He does have the vestiges of a yellow crest. 357 00:35:39,070 --> 00:35:41,500 And he's a quite extraordinary songster. 358 00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:48,829 And several of these males will build their towers 359 00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:50,949 quite close to one another in the forest. 360 00:35:51,030 --> 00:35:53,460 The females tour them make up their minds, 361 00:35:53,550 --> 00:35:55,539 presumably about which is the finest, 362 00:35:55,630 --> 00:35:59,539 and then mate with the architect beside his creation. 363 00:36:03,710 --> 00:36:07,460 They then go away and rear their young entirely by themselves. 364 00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:15,590 The father of this nestling may never even see it. 365 00:36:20,510 --> 00:36:25,018 He spends nine months of the year close to his award-winning building, 366 00:36:25,110 --> 00:36:30,340 hoping, no doubt, that yet another passing female will give him her vote. 367 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:45,150 And this is the work of the master builder among bowerbirds. 368 00:36:45,230 --> 00:36:50,059 I'm in the Vogelkop on the far western tip of New Guinea 369 00:36:50,150 --> 00:36:54,500 and this is the bower of the Vogelkop bowerbird. 370 00:36:54,590 --> 00:36:59,449 And what an astonishment it is! Surely one of the wonders of the natural world. 371 00:36:59,550 --> 00:37:02,940 The bower has been completely roofed over, 372 00:37:03,030 --> 00:37:06,940 thatched with these stems of orchids. 373 00:37:07,030 --> 00:37:10,380 It's been built around the base of a sapling, 374 00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:13,630 it has a stark pillar right in the middle, 375 00:37:13,710 --> 00:37:17,780 and it's got two smaller pillars on the side, to support it. 376 00:37:17,880 --> 00:37:22,789 The whole of the treasury is five or six yards across. 377 00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:27,190 And what treasures it contains! Or what a variety of treasures it contains! 378 00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:32,590 On the far side, there are the black stems of tree ferns. 379 00:37:33,510 --> 00:37:38,699 Here is the lawn neatly planted with moss, and on it, 380 00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:42,469 the shiny wing covers of beetles. 381 00:37:42,550 --> 00:37:46,659 There are orange fruit, there are these glowing orange dead leaves, 382 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:51,909 These are the acorns of the tropical oaks which are common around here. 383 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:56,070 Behind me, there are black fruits. 384 00:37:56,150 --> 00:37:59,619 All of which has been brought specially by the bird. 385 00:38:02,510 --> 00:38:05,099 Bowerbirds are so dedicated to their work 386 00:38:05,190 --> 00:38:08,099 that even if you sit out in the open beside the bower 387 00:38:08,190 --> 00:38:12,340 they will often continue to work, provided you sit absolutely still. 388 00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:32,389 This Vogelkop bowerbird is the plainest of his family, 389 00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:34,510 with no sign whatever of a crest. 390 00:38:34,590 --> 00:38:37,420 But the more spectacular the display in your bower, 391 00:38:37,510 --> 00:38:41,780 presumably the less need you have to impress your mate with bright feathers. 392 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:43,750 And it's difficult to imagine 393 00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:47,268 a more impressive collection of treasures than this. 394 00:38:52,550 --> 00:38:54,849 But they do have to be properly arranged 395 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:57,070 to show them off really well. 396 00:39:25,230 --> 00:39:27,579 Flowers, whenever they appear in the forest 397 00:39:27,670 --> 00:39:32,980 have an obvious appeal to a bird who has a passion for interior decoration. 398 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:49,309 From one point of view, these adornments are better than feathers. 399 00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:54,518 Individual birds of paradise cannot choose their plumes' shape and colour. 400 00:39:54,590 --> 00:39:58,260 They have to display with what their genes have given them. 401 00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:00,920 Bowerbirds, however, can choose. 402 00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:06,018 If a male decides that he stands a better chance of seducing a female with pink, 403 00:40:06,110 --> 00:40:10,300 rather than blue then he can decorate his bower that way. 404 00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:24,630 So it's the tastes and fancies of the females, single mothers, 405 00:40:24,710 --> 00:40:28,179 who have no need of the help of the male in bringing up their families, 406 00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:31,110 that has led to these extravagant exhibitions. 407 00:40:34,510 --> 00:40:38,860 Whether or not the bowerbirds are closely related to the birds of paradise, 408 00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:44,190 both families have reacted in remarkably similar ways to the asset they share - 409 00:40:44,280 --> 00:40:47,030 the huge richness of this forest. 410 00:40:47,110 --> 00:40:50,300 This really is a paradise for birds. 411 00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:54,429 And the variety of bowers it has allowed one family to build 412 00:40:54,510 --> 00:40:58,260 is more than matched by the variety of plumes evolved by the other. 413 00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:01,510 One group of female birds of paradise, for example, 414 00:41:01,590 --> 00:41:05,699 fancied glossy throats, and this is the result. 415 00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:07,909 The splendid astrapia. 416 00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:14,150 Tails clearly didn't impress them to anything like the same degree. 417 00:41:22,150 --> 00:41:26,739 But the splendid astrapia has a close cousin, Shaw Mayer's astrapia, 418 00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:29,300 and those females had different tastes. 419 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,030 They were hot for tails. 420 00:41:32,110 --> 00:41:35,940 There's no wonder that the result of their selections over many generations 421 00:41:36,030 --> 00:41:39,179 is also called the ribbon-tailed bird of paradise. 422 00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:44,469 The female has to sit on a nest and a long tail would get in the way, 423 00:41:44,550 --> 00:41:47,820 but because of her and her forebears' decisions 424 00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:49,949 about what makes a male attractive 425 00:41:50,030 --> 00:41:55,260 he now has the longest tail in proportion to his body of any bird in the world. 426 00:42:08,960 --> 00:42:13,510 The smallest member of the family - the king bird of paradise. 427 00:42:13,590 --> 00:42:18,139 He has yet another kind of tail - two wire-like quills, 428 00:42:18,230 --> 00:42:21,619 each tipped with a little green disc like a coin. 429 00:42:21,710 --> 00:42:24,980 Not so obviously impressive as the ribbon-tail 430 00:42:25,070 --> 00:42:27,449 but wait till you see what he does with them. 431 00:42:33,030 --> 00:42:37,018 Wingspreads and an extraordinary, scarcely birdlike, call 432 00:42:37,110 --> 00:42:39,139 are just the beginning of things. 433 00:42:39,230 --> 00:42:41,690 Just attention-grabbing ways 434 00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:45,909 to let any female around know that he's on his perch, 435 00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:49,699 and about to display his prowess as an acrobat and a juggler. 436 00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:12,309 What could be more attention-grabbing than that? 437 00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:33,420 But that's not all. When he's really excited, he's got a final stunt - 438 00:43:33,510 --> 00:43:35,460 the pendulum. 439 00:43:39,710 --> 00:43:41,659 There it is. 440 00:43:46,670 --> 00:43:48,300 Down in the lowlands 441 00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:52,829 in the swamps beside the rivers, lives the 12-wired bird of paradise. 442 00:43:52,920 --> 00:43:57,389 He comes to his display post in the early dawn. 443 00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:02,940 This is the bird I used to think had been drawn so inaccurately, 444 00:44:03,030 --> 00:44:05,699 but the old illustration was right - 445 00:44:05,800 --> 00:44:09,909 the wires, the quills, are indeed bent back in a tangle. 446 00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:12,829 The female doesn't have them. 447 00:44:29,920 --> 00:44:33,510 But do bent-back quills appeal to a female? 448 00:44:33,590 --> 00:44:35,539 They're hardly beautiful. 449 00:44:57,510 --> 00:45:00,460 Courtship seems to be some kind of game, 450 00:45:00,550 --> 00:45:04,300 a variation of I'm The King Of The Castle, perhaps. 451 00:45:04,400 --> 00:45:07,349 Only, with a very special prize. 452 00:45:28,510 --> 00:45:32,210 He deliberately brushed her face with his rear quills! 453 00:45:47,280 --> 00:45:49,030 He's doing it again! 454 00:45:49,110 --> 00:45:55,059 It seems that she prefers to be seduced, not by visual thrills, but by tactile ones. 455 00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:09,789 And after the quill flick, the beak poke. 456 00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:45,670 It may be an odd technique, but it works. 457 00:46:56,110 --> 00:46:59,940 I've now left New Guinea,. I'm 200 miles to the west 458 00:47:00,030 --> 00:47:04,340 on the island of Halmahera one of the Malukus, the Spice Islands. 459 00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:09,460 It was here that Wallace made perhaps his most spectacular discovery of all - 460 00:47:09,550 --> 00:47:12,500 a completely unknown bird of paradise. 461 00:47:12,590 --> 00:47:17,780 On that today carries his name - Wallace's standardwing. 462 00:47:19,510 --> 00:47:21,659 It was only observed once more 463 00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:24,349 in the hundred years that followed his discovery. 464 00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:28,710 And until recently, some people feared it might have disappeared altogether. 465 00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:31,710 So it is one of the least-known of all species. 466 00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:33,550 But we do know that the males 467 00:47:33,630 --> 00:47:36,699 like the greater bird, which Wallace made so famous 468 00:47:36,800 --> 00:47:39,750 display in groups, and at dawn. 469 00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:41,949 They've gathered in one of these trees, 470 00:47:42,030 --> 00:47:45,179 and from the racket I'd guess there are 30 or 40 of them. 471 00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:47,469 (Many birds calling) 472 00:47:48,510 --> 00:47:51,460 The standards - those long isolated feathers - 473 00:47:51,550 --> 00:47:54,420 project not from the tail, the flank or the head 474 00:47:54,510 --> 00:47:57,900 but, would you believe, the front-edge of the wings. 475 00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:03,179 These are advertising flights - 476 00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:07,989 whizzing vertically into the air to show passing females what's going on. 477 00:48:21,070 --> 00:48:23,340 There he goes again. 478 00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:54,150 I've been watching this perch since very first light, 479 00:48:54,230 --> 00:48:57,539 and I must have seen at least a dozen displays, 480 00:48:57,630 --> 00:49:00,739 but not one of them has ended with a mating. 481 00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:04,789 I think that's because this is one of the junior perches, 482 00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:09,949 the subsidiary ones. The senior perch, where all the action is, 483 00:49:10,030 --> 00:49:12,179 is over there in a much taller tree. 484 00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:14,739 That's where males are winning mates. 485 00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:55,909 A female. 486 00:50:05,190 --> 00:50:08,889 This male is certainly putting on a great performance. 487 00:50:28,190 --> 00:50:32,059 ls she, in fact, assessing and comparing the displays? 488 00:50:57,030 --> 00:51:00,139 A copulation. As ever, a matter of seconds. 489 00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:07,869 Another! Same place. 490 00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:14,739 There seems little, to my eye at least, 491 00:51:14,840 --> 00:51:17,829 to choose between all the several dozen males. 492 00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:21,389 And I don't see how a female could make a proper choice. 493 00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:25,510 Maybe it is the perch in these great assemblies of competing males 494 00:51:25,590 --> 00:51:27,219 that is the important thing. 495 00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:31,630 As it also may be among the greater bird of paradise. 496 00:51:31,710 --> 00:51:34,340 If that is so, then in these mass displays, 497 00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:37,590 the males are not so much showing off to the females 498 00:51:37,670 --> 00:51:40,340 as posturing aggressively to one another. 499 00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:44,110 Using their plumes to demonstrate their strength and vigour, 500 00:51:44,190 --> 00:51:46,539 as stags do with their antlers. 501 00:51:46,630 --> 00:51:50,170 That would enable them to establish a ranking between them all, 502 00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:53,789 and the boy at the top of the rank gets the number one perch. 503 00:52:00,510 --> 00:52:04,099 One of the mysteries about birds of paradise, as far as I'm concerned, 504 00:52:04,190 --> 00:52:07,500 is why, when they have such wonderful colours 505 00:52:07,590 --> 00:52:11,420 do they do so much of their displays in the semi-darkness before dawn? 506 00:52:11,510 --> 00:52:13,619 It's only now that the sun is up 507 00:52:13,710 --> 00:52:18,300 that I can really see the full beauty of these wonderful plumes. 508 00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:22,909 The displays are over. 509 00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:26,699 It's time to get smartened up again after all that rough and tumble. 510 00:52:26,800 --> 00:52:29,590 The white standards are looking a bit bedraggled too, 511 00:52:29,670 --> 00:52:33,579 and at last I can see exactly how they're attached to the front of the wing. 512 00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:40,179 ls there a more elegant cravat, in both shape and colour, worn by any bird? 513 00:52:40,280 --> 00:52:42,230 I doubt it. 514 00:52:52,320 --> 00:52:54,699 So, after weeks of work and travel 515 00:52:54,800 --> 00:52:57,949 with cameramen Richard Kirby and Mike Potts, 516 00:52:58,030 --> 00:53:01,539 we had filmed the displays of not just one species, 517 00:53:01,630 --> 00:53:05,900 but representatives of all the major groups of birds of paradise. 518 00:53:06,440 --> 00:53:09,469 And I had achieved the ambition of a lifetime. 519 00:53:15,070 --> 00:53:18,690 Wallace's emotions on discovering such marvels 520 00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:22,500 must surely be echoed by all of us who follow him. 521 00:53:22,590 --> 00:53:24,500 This is what he wrote - 522 00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:31,110 "I thought of the long ages of the past, during which the successive generations 523 00:53:31,190 --> 00:53:33,820 "of these things of beauties have run their course 524 00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:40,590 "year by year being born and living and dying amid these dark, gloomy woods, 525 00:53:40,670 --> 00:53:44,059 "with no intelligent eye to gaze upon their loveliness, 526 00:53:44,150 --> 00:53:47,619 "to all appearances, such a wanton waste of beauty. 527 00:53:47,710 --> 00:53:50,420 "lt seems sad that, on the one hand 528 00:53:50,510 --> 00:53:56,739 "such exquisite creatures should live out their lives and exhibit their charms 529 00:53:56,840 --> 00:54:00,869 "only in these wild, inhospitable regions. 530 00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:03,230 "This consideration must surely tell us 531 00:54:03,320 --> 00:54:07,469 "that all living things were not made for man. 532 00:54:07,550 --> 00:54:10,659 "Many of them have no relation to him 533 00:54:10,760 --> 00:54:14,750 "Their happiness and enjoyments, their loves and hates 534 00:54:14,840 --> 00:54:16,989 "their struggles for existence, 535 00:54:17,070 --> 00:54:22,860 "their vigorous life and early death would seem to be immediately related 536 00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:26,739 "to their own wellbeing and perpetuation alone." 537 00:54:28,800 --> 00:54:30,750 Indeed so.