The Big Year
Three fanatical bird-watchers spend an entire year competing to spot the highest number of species as El Nino sends an extraordinary variety of rare breeds flying up into the U.S., but they quickly discover that there are more important things than coming out on top of the competition.
Winged Migration
This documentary follows various migratory bird species on their long journeys from their summer homes to the equator and back, covering thousands of miles and navigating by the stars. These arduous treks are crucial for survival, seeking hospitable climates and food sources. Birds face numerous challenges, including crossing oceans and evading predators, illness, and injury. Although migrations are undertaken as a community, birds disperse into family units once they reach their destinations, and every continent is affected by these migrations, hosting migratory bird species at least part of the year.
Birdman of Alcatraz
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.
2.0
An ornithologist who commits suicide returns as fifth force to wreack vengeance on mankind for harming birds with mobile phone radiation. The only thing that is standing in his way is 2.0, the upgraded version of Chitti, the robot.
Incorrectly Drawn Hen
At school the dunce draws a Picasso style chicken on the black board. The chicken comes to life, runs away, and finds itself in the teacher's garden. The teacher thinks he has discovered a new species and christens it with his own name.
Saving Spoonie
Spoonie, the spoon-billed sandpiper, would have long since gone extinct without Dr. Christoph Zöckler and a tight-knit group of international ornithologists. As if that weren’t bad enough, the migration route of this sparrow-sized wading bird—with its peculiar spoon-shaped bill—runs from Russia through North Korea and China all the way to Myanmar, passing through several of the world’s crisis regions of the past decade. The work of the task force is therefore also a political challenge. It requires diplomatic sensitivity in coordinating with the countries along the flyway. In the tragicomic story of Spoonie’s fate, the struggle for threatened biodiversity in an increasingly fragile world is reflected.
Flamingos: Life After the Meteorite
The search for the right partner, place, and moment to start a family is one of nature's most crucial journeys. This breathtaking story of love, survival, and perseverance follows Caribbean flamingos through one of the most fragile stages of their lives. With Julieta Venegas’ voice and Bryce Dessner’s music setting the tone, this film offers a unique and immersive cinematic experience, capturing the beauty and struggles of these extraordinary birds.
Change in the Air
A peaceful community is forever changed when a mysterious young woman moves in. As the quirky locals embrace her, their lives soon improve. But, they can't help notice that their strange new neighbor has a secret.
Pasárgada
Irene is a lonely 50-year-old ornithologist who, during secret research in the rainforest, immerses herself in a sensory journey to rescue her desires, facing her dilemmas that confront the illegal trafficking of wild birds.
Watching Birds with Roger Tory Peterson
A description of bird watching with the renowned authority and author of many guides on the subject.
Pica Pica
In Pica Pica Kristersson invites the viewer to be enthralled for an hour and a half by the vicissitudes of magpie life. Opposing himself to the current nature films that tend to highly compress time in order to end up with a concentrated sequence of action-elements Kristersson leaves rhythm and tempo almost completely up to the magpies themselves. With great integrity he filmed the daily, social and emotional life of a species of birds that has many points of contact with human life. Thus, the movie offers us the oppurtunity to view our own everyday existence through other eyes, from a world right above our heads, but yet so far away.
The iron man.
The Iron Man takes us on an introspective journey into the life of Toni, a man who finds in art and nature the essential pillars of his existence. The creation of iron and stone sculptures, together with work in the countryside as a gardener, help him to find beauty in the simplicity of life. His vision of life, as if he were a ‘rural philosopher’, will teach us to break down stigmas about mental health and to look at life from a hopeful perspective.
Hermann Heinzel Ornithologist
Portrait of Hermann Heinzel.
The Case of the Flying Dinosaur
The long running, often bitter scientific debate over the origin of birds and the evolution of flight.
Raptors: A Fistful of Daggers
From giant eagles to miniature falconets, meet the many species of raptors. Explore how they survive bitter winters, learn to hunt and undergo epic migrations. Their superpowers of flight, sight, hearing and smell give them dominance over the skies. See the extreme ways in which raptors conquer the toughest habitats on Earth. From snowy owls in the high Arctic to honey buzzards raiding hornet nests in Taiwan, raptors can hunt prey in any climate.
Eagle Power
Eagles dominate the skies. But what makes these predators so special? Researchers study one special bird—and stunning up-close footage reveals her exceptional strength, eyesight, and flying skills. With intimate access to a new bald eagle family, this film takes you into the nest to witness the drama of chicks struggling to survive.
Purple Haze: A Conservation Film
Follow one man’s journey chasing America’s favorite backyard bird halfway around the world and back.
Flyway of Life
The Atlantic Flyway, the easternmost migration path in North America, is among the most vital ecological phenomenons in the world. Join explorer Tomas Koeck as he examines several unlikely relationships along this massive migratory chain.
The Cuckoo
A silent ornithology film from Bray Studios