1 00:00:02,280 --> 00:00:03,960 SQUAWKING 2 00:00:03,960 --> 00:00:06,960 For 500 years, these birds have been 3 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:10,440 surrounded by myth and glamour. 4 00:00:10,440 --> 00:00:13,960 And I've got to confess that I've been fascinated by them 5 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:16,560 for most of my life. 6 00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:20,880 This is just one member of a hugely varied family 7 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:24,360 that, to my mind, includes the most spectacular 8 00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:27,400 and beautiful birds on Earth. 9 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:29,360 The birds of paradise. 10 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:35,880 And what's more, 11 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:39,560 they throw light on some of the great mysteries of evolution. 12 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:49,800 Why have the birds of paradise become the most diverse, bizarre 13 00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:52,920 and beautiful of all bird families? 14 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:57,560 Why have they developed the most extravagant plumes 15 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:01,800 and adornments of any group of living things on Earth, 16 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:06,160 so that sometimes, they almost cease to look like birds at all? 17 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:11,120 And why is it that this extraordinary family 18 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:12,960 is largely restricted 19 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:16,600 to one jungle-covered island in the Pacific? 20 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:19,120 TRILLING 21 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:23,840 Explorers and scientists 22 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:28,040 have been puzzling over these questions for 500 years. 23 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,320 Even today, by using the latest filming techniques, 24 00:01:31,320 --> 00:01:34,760 we are making new discoveries about their behaviour. 25 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:41,960 This surely is one of the most spectacular sights 26 00:01:41,960 --> 00:01:44,960 anyone could see in the natural world. 27 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:01,720 The mystery of the birds of paradise 28 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:04,120 began back in the 16th century. 29 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:10,360 In 1522, a ship returning to Europe 30 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:14,480 from exploring the mysterious islands of the Far East 31 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:17,400 brought with it, amongst other marvels, 32 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:20,560 three extraordinary skins. 33 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:23,120 They were very like this one. 34 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,880 You can see it's a bird - there's its beak, and its head. 35 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:29,920 And here are these long, feathery plumes. 36 00:02:30,920 --> 00:02:33,600 But it has no wings... 37 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:35,360 and no feet. 38 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:37,320 The explorers had been told that 39 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:41,120 that was because these birds lived in paradise. 40 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:48,000 The ship concerned was one of five 41 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:51,040 that had set out in 1519 42 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:54,360 to sail around the world for the very first time, 43 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:58,640 under the command of the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. 44 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:08,920 They endured catastrophic tropical storms and shipwrecks. 45 00:03:08,920 --> 00:03:13,320 Magellan himself was killed in a tribal war in the Philippines. 46 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:16,720 But after three gruelling years, 47 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:21,400 the Victoria, the sole surviving ship, arrived back in Spain. 48 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:25,920 It was loaded with wonders and treasures, 49 00:03:25,920 --> 00:03:29,880 including those first specimens of birds of paradise. 50 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:38,120 Magellan had been presented with these skins by a king 51 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:42,400 in the Spice Islands - the Moluccas, as we call them today - 52 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:44,720 in eastern Indonesia. 53 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:48,640 When Magellan's men asked why they had no wings or no feet, 54 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:50,080 the people had a problem, 55 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:53,280 because they themselves had never seen the birds alive. 56 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:55,280 They had been traded to the islands 57 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:59,040 from islands even farther to the east. 58 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:00,880 So they made up an answer. 59 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:04,360 They said, "Well, it's because the birds float high in the sky, 60 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:06,680 "among the clouds, feeding on dew, 61 00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:11,200 "and human beings only see them when they die and fall to the earth." 62 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:16,800 So the first descriptions of these "birds of the gods" 63 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:19,680 were far from first-hand. 64 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:22,720 Yet they were accepted as fact by Europeans. 65 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:31,080 This was one of the very first paintings of a bird of paradise, 66 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,560 and it appears in the margin of a book of prayers 67 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:37,200 written in 1540, 68 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:39,760 to show the devout the sort of creatures 69 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:43,760 they might expect to see when they got to paradise. 70 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:48,360 But it wasn't only the pious who were interested in the discovery. 71 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:50,560 So were naturalists. 72 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:54,800 But their understanding of the birds was similarly clouded by mythology. 73 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:03,520 This is the first volume in a great encyclopaedia of natural history 74 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:08,320 published in 1599 by an Italian called Aldrovandus. 75 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:13,400 And it's full of remarkably accurate pictures and descriptions. 76 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:16,680 There's a toucan, for example. 77 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:19,760 And here is a hornbill. 78 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:21,960 But turn another couple of pages... 79 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:28,760 ..and a bird of paradise, without legs, 80 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:31,680 floating in the skies. No wings. 81 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:36,200 And here it is drinking dew from the clouds. 82 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:42,440 Aldrovandus was so respected that this view of the habits 83 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:46,840 of birds of paradise persisted well into the 17th century. 84 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:53,160 It's hardly surprising that these pictures are wildly inaccurate, 85 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:57,840 bearing in mind that they were drawn from those flattened skins. 86 00:05:57,840 --> 00:06:01,640 After all, no-one in Europe had ever seen wings or legs 87 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:04,360 attached to these astonishing plumes. 88 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:07,840 So it was not unreasonable for Europeans, 89 00:06:07,840 --> 00:06:11,040 who still believed in dragons and mermaids, 90 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:15,160 to accept that these birds lived in paradise. 91 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:19,600 But still no-one knew where the skins actually came from. 92 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:25,520 In fact, the birds come from New Guinea. 93 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:30,520 It's 1,000 miles long and lies just north of Australia. 94 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:33,920 And there, of course, the people knew perfectly well 95 00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:35,680 the truth about the birds. 96 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:38,040 They hunted them for the sake of their plumes, 97 00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:42,120 which they used as currency and in many of their important ceremonials. 98 00:06:43,840 --> 00:06:47,480 My first opportunity to see these wonderful birds 99 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:51,320 came when I went to New Guinea back in 1957. 100 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:57,560 We saw a wide, fertile valley ringed with mountains. 101 00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:00,840 This was our destination - the valley of the Wahgi River. 102 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:07,360 Within a few minutes of landing, I saw coming towards me 103 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,400 through the tall grass a party of tribesmen 104 00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:13,080 wearing magnificent feather headdresses. 105 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:19,920 We filmed a celebration called a Sing-sing, 106 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:21,800 during which tribal people, 107 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:26,040 wearing spectacular headdresses of birds-of-paradise plumes, 108 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:28,880 gather together to dance and chant. 109 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:34,000 And I took these photographs. 110 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:37,680 They displayed them during their dances, 111 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:40,280 showing how wealthy each of the men were 112 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:43,080 by having these enormous headdresses. 113 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:45,680 That's Princess Stephanie's black tail feathers. 114 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:49,880 These are King of Saxony's feathers from the top of the head. 115 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:53,200 These are the red plumes of Count Raggi's bird of paradise, 116 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:56,560 and these the yellow ones of the Lesser. 117 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,920 When they came to have marriages, 118 00:07:59,920 --> 00:08:03,640 a party going to collect a bride would have to take a gift 119 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:06,640 to the bride's parents of birds-of-paradise plumes. 120 00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:09,240 And they arrange them on these great banners. 121 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:14,080 There's a front view of that with nearly two dozen sets 122 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:18,520 of bird-of-paradise plumes all around the side of the banner. 123 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:21,600 And down the middle there, gold-lipped pearl shells. 124 00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:30,160 For thousands of years, the plumes have been traded 125 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:33,800 from this part of New Guinea right across Indonesia, 126 00:08:33,800 --> 00:08:36,760 up into South-East Asia and beyond. 127 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:46,640 In Europe 400 years ago, many aristocratic families 128 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:48,800 possessed cabinets of curiosities 129 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:52,320 in which they displayed their collections of natural wonders, 130 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:57,120 and specimens of birds of paradise were amongst the most precious. 131 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:11,560 Their splendour even caught the eye of British royalty. 132 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:17,560 The young Scottish prince who was going to become Charles I of England 133 00:09:17,560 --> 00:09:23,280 had his portrait painted with his furry hat on the table beside him, 134 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:26,640 and in it, his most treasured possession - 135 00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:29,320 the plumes of birds of paradise. 136 00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:35,760 Naturalists, seeking to curry favour with the aristocracy 137 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:38,960 and get financial backing for their expeditions, 138 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:43,800 promised to name any new species they discovered after their patrons, 139 00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:45,800 and indeed they did so. 140 00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:50,200 This is Queen Carola's bird of paradise, 141 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:52,800 with plumes on the top of his head. 142 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:56,160 This one was named after an Italian count, 143 00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:58,160 Count Raggi's bird of paradise. 144 00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:00,640 This one was named after Queen Victoria. 145 00:10:00,640 --> 00:10:04,800 And this one is Prince Rudolf's bird of paradise, 146 00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:08,680 though it's more often known these days as the blue bird of paradise. 147 00:10:08,680 --> 00:10:12,160 And here is Princess Stephanie's bird of paradise, 148 00:10:12,160 --> 00:10:14,920 with a great, long, glossy black plume. 149 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:21,560 Not all were named after royalty. 150 00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:27,600 Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, fired with republican zeal, 151 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:31,560 named this one Diphyllodes Respublica, 152 00:10:31,560 --> 00:10:34,600 the Republican or People's bird of paradise. 153 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:37,440 But the popular version of the name didn't catch on, 154 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:40,840 and these days we call it Wilson's Bird. 155 00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:46,520 Unlike the showy males, 156 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:50,320 the female birds-of-paradise are drab and brown in colour. 157 00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:56,280 All look very similar, so you can well believe that they are related. 158 00:10:57,320 --> 00:11:00,480 It's just the males with their extravagant decorations 159 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:03,520 that make the individual species look so different. 160 00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:08,880 But even as late as the 19th century, no European 161 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:12,480 had seen anything of these birds except their dried skins. 162 00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:15,680 And people wondered what the living birds must look like. 163 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:20,440 Errol Fuller, a collector who owns specimens 164 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:24,080 of 37 of the 39 known species of birds of paradise, 165 00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:28,840 also paints them, and understands the difficulties involved. 166 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:36,560 The early painters of birds couldn't go and see these things in the wild, 167 00:11:36,560 --> 00:11:38,840 and they couldn't see them in captivity, 168 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:42,000 so they were presented with something like this. 169 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:47,160 A dried, flattened skin that had been brought back from New Guinea, 170 00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:50,040 and this was all they had to go on to make their painting. 171 00:11:50,040 --> 00:11:52,520 This is a Black Sicklebill bird of paradise. 172 00:11:52,520 --> 00:11:56,040 And the problem they had were things like this. 173 00:11:56,040 --> 00:11:58,040 What on earth are these? 174 00:11:58,040 --> 00:12:01,400 They look at first sight like wings. But they're not wings. 175 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:04,640 The wings are down here. They're just ornamental plumes, 176 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:07,360 and there are more ornamental plumes down here. 177 00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:10,120 So, what did the bird do with these in life? 178 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:15,240 This is a mid-19th-century artist's answer, 179 00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:17,720 and it's wildly inaccurate. 180 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:23,880 The Sicklebill actually displays like this. 181 00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:31,240 It takes him a little time to work up to his full display posture. 182 00:12:40,560 --> 00:12:41,680 There! 183 00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:46,080 He lifts up those feathery tufts on his shoulders, 184 00:12:46,080 --> 00:12:50,040 and holds them around his head so that he hardly looks like a bird. 185 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:58,640 And he repeats the performance on the same display post 186 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:01,000 up to five times every morning. 187 00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:10,280 It wasn't until 300 years after Europeans saw the first skins 188 00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:14,320 that anyone actually saw a bird of paradise displaying in the wild. 189 00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:20,200 And the person who did so was the British explorer 190 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:23,320 Alfred Russel Wallace who, along with Darwin, 191 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:26,880 first proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection. 192 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:33,040 Alfred Russel Wallace was a great naturalist and scientist, 193 00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:35,000 but he was not a wealthy man. 194 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:39,560 He earned his living by going to the tropics and collecting insects 195 00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:43,200 and birds, and sending them back for sale to wealthy collectors 196 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:44,640 and to museums. 197 00:13:44,640 --> 00:13:48,720 And he was obsessed with birds of paradise. 198 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:52,480 In 1854, he set off for New Guinea. 199 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:59,920 He became the first European ever to see birds of paradise display. 200 00:13:59,920 --> 00:14:03,080 Here is his description of that sight. 201 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:10,200 "On one of these trees, a dozen or 20 full-plumaged male birds 202 00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:12,680 "assemble together, raise up their wings, 203 00:14:12,680 --> 00:14:16,320 "stretch out their necks and elevate their exquisite plumes, 204 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:19,200 "keeping them in a continual vibration." 205 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:25,600 "At the time of excitement, 206 00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:28,080 "the wings are raised vertically over the back, 207 00:14:28,080 --> 00:14:30,400 "the head is bent down and stretched out, 208 00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:33,080 "and the long plumes are raised up and expanded 209 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:36,160 "till they form two magnificent golden fans." 210 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:49,200 Wallace's description amazed the world, and his book, 211 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:53,000 Travels in the Malay Archipelago, went on to become 212 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:57,720 one of the bestselling travel books of the 19th century. 213 00:14:57,720 --> 00:15:00,640 I myself read it when I was about nine or ten, 214 00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:05,720 and the frontispiece to the second volume fascinated me. 215 00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:08,360 Here are the birds in display. 216 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,560 I yearned to go off and see such a sight for myself. 217 00:15:21,760 --> 00:15:24,960 It was on that first trip to New Guinea in 1957, 218 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:29,160 for a television series called Zoo Quest, that I got my chance. 219 00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:35,800 During the first month, 220 00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:39,320 we saw plenty of plumes of birds of paradise on headdresses, 221 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:41,880 but none on the living birds. 222 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:44,040 At just one Sing-sing, 223 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:48,600 I estimated that there were 20,000 bird skins on display. 224 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:51,320 It seemed to me unlikely that we were going to find 225 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:54,680 many birds of paradise alive around here. 226 00:15:56,520 --> 00:16:00,080 So we decided to travel somewhere further afield, 227 00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:04,360 where there were fewer people, in order to find the living birds. 228 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:10,760 We went to the north to a valley that was then quite unexplored, 229 00:16:10,760 --> 00:16:14,320 an "uncontrolled territory", as they called it at the time. 230 00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:17,040 The people were really still living in the Stone Age, 231 00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:19,880 making stone axes like this. 232 00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:24,520 We had to cross rivers with locally made suspension bridges, 233 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:26,040 like this one. 234 00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:28,040 Or even had to wade our way across, 235 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:32,360 and we had 100 porters carrying everything we needed - 236 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:36,320 food, gifts, cakes of salt, that sort of thing. 237 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:38,800 Eventually, we did find the birds. 238 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:47,520 The valley was throbbing with calls of Count Raggi's Paradise Birds. 239 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:51,000 As far as we knew, no-one had ever filmed the courtship dance 240 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:53,280 of these birds of paradise in the wild. 241 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:55,040 And this was to be our lucky day. 242 00:16:57,240 --> 00:16:59,760 We could see his gorgeous red plumes 243 00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:01,640 hanging from beneath his wings. 244 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:07,520 The plumes which make him so coveted and so desirable a prize 245 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:09,200 for all the people hereabouts. 246 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:13,800 And then suddenly, in a frenzy of excitement, 247 00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:17,600 he threw his ruby plumes above his head, shrieking with excitement. 248 00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:24,480 Our film, even if it was in black and white and rather fuzzy, 249 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:28,440 was the first record of a wild bird of paradise in display, 250 00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:32,040 and showed exactly how he erected his plumes. 251 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:40,720 And this skin, which I found in a Paris flea market some years ago, 252 00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:43,760 is of the bird that we filmed in black and white, 253 00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:47,720 and here you can see how wonderfully rich its plumage was. 254 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:52,000 This a trade skin, just as the people prepare it in New Guinea, 255 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:56,000 without any legs and without any wings. 256 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:00,680 Both have been removed to emphasise the glory of these plumes. 257 00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:04,080 After ten minutes, 258 00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:08,480 he executed a final flutter and flew to another branch. 259 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:12,800 But this was only a single bird in display. 260 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:21,720 It was another 40 years before I saw the group display 261 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:24,400 of the larger and more impressive species, 262 00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:28,320 the greater bird of paradise, that Wallace had described. 263 00:18:31,360 --> 00:18:35,920 The birds are in another emergent tree just like this one, 264 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:39,520 and I've got an absolutely clear view of them. 265 00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:44,760 This, at last, is Wallace's picture come to life. 266 00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:56,600 Wallace described the display very accurately, as you would expect. 267 00:18:56,600 --> 00:19:00,680 But he didn't understand why the birds were behaving like this, 268 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:02,640 in a group. 269 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:12,800 So even 300 years after the discovery of these birds, 270 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:16,560 the purpose of their displays still wasn't properly understood. 271 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:23,280 And it wasn't just the greater bird of paradise 272 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:25,200 that perplexed naturalists. 273 00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:31,800 The second species of bird of paradise to arrive in Europe 274 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:33,520 at the end of the 16th century 275 00:19:33,520 --> 00:19:37,720 appeared to be an even more bizarre-looking creature. 276 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:40,640 It still had a pair of golden plumes 277 00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:45,440 sprouting from its flanks to justify it being called a bird of paradise. 278 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:49,960 It seems to have been painted soon after its arrival, 279 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:52,440 as the gold colour fades with time, 280 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:56,760 and, like the first ones, it had no wings or legs, 281 00:19:56,760 --> 00:20:00,600 but it did have some extra, rather mysterious adornments. 282 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:06,240 This is it. 283 00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:09,280 It's called the twelve-wired bird of paradise. 284 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:14,800 That's because it has thin, naked quills sprouting from the tail, 285 00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:18,200 six on one side, six on the other. 286 00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:20,920 What were such things used for? 287 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:23,960 Some people suggested that it wasn't natural 288 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:26,360 that they were curled up in this way, 289 00:20:26,360 --> 00:20:29,520 that it happened because of the way the bird was packed. 290 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:32,760 Others suggested that maybe it roosted 291 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:35,720 by hanging from them upside down. 292 00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:37,960 Nobody had any idea. 293 00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:43,680 In the years that followed, more specimens of this bird appeared, 294 00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:48,400 and other artists made a somewhat better job of depicting it. 295 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:58,760 But the function of those strange 12 wires remained a mystery. 296 00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:05,680 It was only on my second trip to New Guinea in 1997, 297 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:09,920 when we filmed the bizarre courtship of this bird 298 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:12,440 for the very first time, that we found the answer. 299 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:20,720 Courtship seems to be some kind of game, 300 00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:24,280 a variation of "I'm the king of the castle", perhaps, 301 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:26,760 only with a very special prize. 302 00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:42,720 He deliberately brushed her face with his rear quills. 303 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,000 He's doing it again. 304 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:51,480 It seems that she prefers to be seduced, not by visual thrills, 305 00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:53,920 but by tactile ones. 306 00:21:58,280 --> 00:22:01,600 It may be an odd technique, but it works. 307 00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:07,800 So it took 400 years from the arrival of the first skin 308 00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:11,680 of the twelve-wired bird to actually record its courtship ritual 309 00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:16,600 and finally solve the mystery of the peculiar adornments. 310 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,160 But there's another species 311 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:24,680 whose display is perhaps the hardest of all to interpret from its skin. 312 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:27,680 It doesn't so much flaunt its feathers 313 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:30,920 as use them to entirely transform itself. 314 00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:36,680 This is the superb bird of paradise, 315 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:40,440 and it has this wonderful shield on its breast. 316 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,560 This blue colour isn't pigment. 317 00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:49,960 It's reflected light, like that that comes from a thin film of oil. 318 00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:54,240 So it changes according to how you view it. 319 00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:56,640 But that's not its only decoration. 320 00:22:56,640 --> 00:23:00,120 On its back it has a kind of cape. 321 00:23:00,120 --> 00:23:03,600 These aren't wings, they are just feathers. 322 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:08,120 How would the bird have displayed that? 323 00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:12,240 That was the problem facing 19th-century bird illustrators. 324 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:18,760 Artists did their best to work out 325 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:21,520 how the birds showed off their ornaments. 326 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:32,000 This version shows the superb bird's colours more or less correctly. 327 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:35,400 But otherwise, it's nowhere near the truth. 328 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:40,480 It wasn't until the late 20th century 329 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:42,880 that ornithologists managed to work out 330 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:47,120 just how the superb bird uses its feathers to transform itself. 331 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:50,800 These drawings by the Australian artist Bill Cooper 332 00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:52,840 show just how it does it. 333 00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:57,640 It uses these long black feathers, which form a cape on its back, 334 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:00,800 and brings them forward to form a funnel. 335 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:04,680 Then the green... Iridescent green breast shield 336 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:07,120 forms the base of the funnel. 337 00:24:07,120 --> 00:24:11,440 And in the far depths, there appear to be two eyes staring at you. 338 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:13,880 In fact, they're not even eyes at all. 339 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:15,880 They're white spots on its head. 340 00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:22,680 I think if in the 19th century any artist had suggested that 341 00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:26,440 that's what the bird did, he really would have been ridiculed. 342 00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:31,120 But no drawing can completely capture 343 00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:36,000 the extraordinary way the superb bird transforms itself in display. 344 00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:43,160 You just have to see the living bird. 345 00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:45,800 CLICKING 346 00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:54,080 The rhythmic clicks are made by flicking the wing feathers. 347 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:09,360 In 1996, I was able to watch Bill Cooper at work 348 00:25:09,360 --> 00:25:12,160 as he painted another bird of paradise, 349 00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:13,520 a Victoria Riflebird. 350 00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:21,000 This is one of the few birds of paradise 351 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:24,560 that is found outside New Guinea or its offshore islands. 352 00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:27,080 It lives in Australia, in northern Queensland, 353 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:31,920 where Bill Cooper also has his home, in an unspoilt patch of rainforest. 354 00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:34,000 Come on, boy. Come on, gorgeous. 355 00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:38,160 Oh, look at that colour! 356 00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:39,880 - Here he comes. - Come on. 357 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:51,480 Oh, you are lovely. 358 00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:56,560 As a young man, Bill Cooper travelled 359 00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:59,120 through some of the wildest parts of New Guinea, 360 00:25:59,120 --> 00:26:01,240 watching and painting the birds. 361 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:05,240 It was Count Raggi's that he encountered first, as I had done. 362 00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:08,840 It turned and faced the female, 363 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:12,000 and then the male started shuffling towards her, 364 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:13,840 and he puffed out his chest feathers - 365 00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:15,520 I'd wondered what they were for, 366 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:18,040 but he fluffed them out and formed a great pompom 367 00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:20,360 through which his beak was protruding. 368 00:26:20,360 --> 00:26:21,760 It was a great display. 369 00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:30,040 Bill Cooper, to my mind anyway, 370 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:34,720 is the greatest of all bird-of-paradise illustrators. 371 00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,600 And this one of the blue bird in display is particularly successful. 372 00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:41,920 He's caught this wonderful intensity of blue 373 00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:44,080 as the bird hangs upside down. 374 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,240 But what even Bill Cooper can't do 375 00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:49,600 is to show that the male blue bird, as he hangs like this, 376 00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:54,840 actually throbs this pattern here, making a noise at the same time 377 00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:58,840 that sounds like some electronic equipment that's gone wrong. 378 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,800 Images of birds of paradise have become increasingly accurate 379 00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:17,840 since those first attempts. 380 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:26,800 The plumed birds, in particular, that dance high in the trees, 381 00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:29,000 became better known scientifically 382 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,920 as explorers and naturalists travelled more widely 383 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:35,440 through New Guinea's dense forests. 384 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:39,600 However, a few species display not up in the branches, 385 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:41,920 but on the ground. 386 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:46,600 They are more difficult to observe. 387 00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:51,280 But we did manage to film one in display for the very first time 388 00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:53,800 on my trip in 1997. 389 00:27:55,120 --> 00:27:57,640 I have come to the island of Batanta. 390 00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:01,840 It has its own species of bird of paradise that evolved here 391 00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,040 and lives nowhere else. 392 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:06,400 One way of trying to get a look at it 393 00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:10,880 is to put some leaves on this arena, 394 00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:15,280 because this bird is meticulously tidy. 395 00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:18,360 There he is! 396 00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:24,160 Wilson's bird of paradise. 397 00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:29,440 He's got his own fashion gimmick - the bald look. 398 00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:36,520 There goes the first of the leaves that I dropped. 399 00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:38,920 He is really quite small. 400 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:40,920 Only the size of a starling. 401 00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:53,600 That looks like a female. 402 00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:24,280 He's clearly not much of a dancer, 403 00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:27,960 but with a costume like that, who would need to be? 404 00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:37,320 What an amazing bird! 405 00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:40,600 I've seen lots of coloured illustrations of them, 406 00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:43,240 I have seen mounted specimens in museums, 407 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:47,280 but nothing has prepared me for the splendour of this wonderful thing. 408 00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:53,400 Although Wilson's bird is very spectacular, 409 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:56,480 there are other ground-living species 410 00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:58,760 with much more complex dances. 411 00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:07,240 In 1876, an Italian explorer, Luigi D'Albertis, 412 00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:10,080 spent many months charting the territory 413 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:13,720 of the then virtually unknown interior of New Guinea. 414 00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:20,280 During one of his excursions through the forest, 415 00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:25,000 his local guide pointed to a bird sitting on a perch in a clearing. 416 00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:31,760 D'Albertis's first reaction was to shoot and skin the bird, 417 00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:35,240 as he had done with every other specimen that he had collected. 418 00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:38,600 And he was just about to pull the trigger 419 00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:43,280 when the local man put his hand on his arm and said, "Wait." 420 00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:48,200 Then D'Albertis became the first European ever 421 00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:51,560 to see the display of the parotia bird of paradise. 422 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,080 This is how he describes it in his book. 423 00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:01,000 "The bird spread and contracted the long feathers on his sides 424 00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,200 "in a way that made him appear now larger, 425 00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:05,880 "and again smaller than his real size." 426 00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,360 "And jumping first to one side, and then on the other, 427 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:13,960 "he placed himself proudly in an attitude of combat, 428 00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:17,720 "as though he imagined himself fighting with an invisible foe." 429 00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:23,240 "All this time he was uttering a curious note 430 00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:26,800 "as though calling on someone to admire his beauty, 431 00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:29,080 "or perhaps challenging an enemy. 432 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:34,400 "The deep silence of the forest was stirred by the echoes of his voice." 433 00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:41,960 And then he pressed the trigger and shot it. 434 00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:43,680 GUNSHOT 435 00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:50,240 "When the smoke cleared away, 436 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,520 "a black object lying in the middle of the glade 437 00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:57,160 "showed me that I had not missed my mark." 438 00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:02,760 "Full of joy, I ran to possess myself of my prey. 439 00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:06,200 "But, as I drew near, my courage failed me. 440 00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:08,680 "I could not stretch forth my hand. 441 00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:11,640 "And, full of remorse I said to myself, 442 00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:14,160 "'Man is indeed cruel.' 443 00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,280 "The poor creature was full of happiness. 444 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:21,360 "One flash from a gun and all his joy is past." 445 00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:32,400 Now, film-makers like Paul Stewart 446 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:36,280 hunt the birds not with guns, but cameras. 447 00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:39,640 Using the latest ultra-sensitive filming equipment, 448 00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:43,520 he captured the parotia's behaviour in meticulous detail. 449 00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:47,040 The key to filming them 450 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:49,760 is for them to have no idea that you're there. 451 00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:53,480 And the best way to achieve that 452 00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:56,360 is to build a hide with the help of the local people. 453 00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:02,880 You go in before first light, you leave after dusk, 454 00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:07,480 and in between you are as silent as you humanly can be. 455 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:17,360 In 2005, he spent five weeks filming Lawes's parotia in action. 456 00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:21,680 Eventually, he saw the male start to clear his display area or court. 457 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:28,080 And then he took a piece of damp leaf 458 00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:33,080 and was shining the branch that the female would first come into 459 00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:34,840 to judge his display. 460 00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:41,600 It was as if the male was directing her to a specific vantage point. 461 00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:45,560 Once he had polished the branch to his satisfaction, 462 00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:47,280 he began his display. 463 00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:58,840 He had a little bow tie almost of iridescent feathers, 464 00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:03,520 but rather like a comedy bow tie, this thing would flick up and down 465 00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:05,400 while he was displaying. 466 00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:09,920 Now, we thought, "That's making a nice flash at ground level." 467 00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:13,320 We should have suspected that there was more to it. 468 00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:18,640 In fact, he was looking at and filming the bird 469 00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:20,600 from the wrong angle. 470 00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:24,000 It took another film crew to reveal why. 471 00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:30,640 An American team decided to try and film 472 00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:35,240 every single one of the 39 known species of birds of paradise. 473 00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:45,880 Edwin Scholes and Tim Laman from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology 474 00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:48,840 spent ten years crisscrossing New Guinea 475 00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:50,400 in search of these birds. 476 00:34:55,400 --> 00:35:01,240 There are four species of parotia and in one, Wahnes's parotia, 477 00:35:01,240 --> 00:35:03,120 they discovered something new. 478 00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:10,840 They placed the camera above the arena of a displaying male, 479 00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:15,080 and so observed his dance from a female's point of view. 480 00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:20,960 And it showed two details of the male's performance 481 00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:23,280 that can only be seen from above. 482 00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:29,320 The pennants on his head, seen this way, 483 00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:32,520 form a vibrating arc around his skirt. 484 00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:39,920 Then, iridescent lights appear to flash across the top of his head, 485 00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:42,840 something you just can't see from the side. 486 00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,240 And the bow tie of iridescent feathers 487 00:35:52,240 --> 00:35:54,600 has very much more impact from above. 488 00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:08,040 It is now known how the parotia breast shield changes colour. 489 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:13,120 The feathers are arranged so they overlap like scales, 490 00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:15,720 and each feather has side filaments, 491 00:36:15,720 --> 00:36:19,760 each of which has three different reflectors - 492 00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:25,000 one that reflects an orange-yellow colour and two that reflect blue. 493 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:28,480 And these reflectors are at an angle to one another, 494 00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:30,400 so as the bird moves, 495 00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:33,920 the breast shield appears to change colour, like this. 496 00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:41,920 And the parotia family held yet more secrets, 497 00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:46,480 as Ed Scholes and Tim Laman revealed when they visited me in Bristol. 498 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:49,760 - Nice to meet you! - Where are we going to sit? - Right here. - OK. 499 00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:54,000 I can't wait to see this stuff. 500 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:56,280 They had filmed the courtship display 501 00:36:56,280 --> 00:37:00,200 of the Queen Carola's parotia, that I had never seen before. 502 00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:04,440 Oh! I can immediately see it's different, with those white flanks. 503 00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:08,080 There's a female there... 504 00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:10,320 Oh, yeah. She's much lighter. 505 00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:13,840 - There's another at the back. - Oh, yes. Three females now. 506 00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:20,080 - Four! - They keep coming. - Look at that, look at how intense they are. 507 00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:23,000 - Ah! It's starting. - See this figure of eight, 508 00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,800 where he's bouncing back and forth fluttering his wings. 509 00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:28,640 If you were to trace the feathers on the back of his head, 510 00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:31,640 and slow it down, it would make a perfect figure of eight. 511 00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:34,720 And they're always perched above the display? 512 00:37:34,720 --> 00:37:38,080 - That's right. - It's a really important part of the court. 513 00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:39,760 The male selects that spot 514 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:43,480 because it has that perch for his audience to watch from. 515 00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:46,480 And the audience really knows where the best place is. 516 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:49,120 The dance is facing upwards. 517 00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:53,480 Here he is, see this hop and shake. Hop and shake. 518 00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:57,160 He's transformed himself into this ballerina-like skirt shape. 519 00:37:57,160 --> 00:38:01,160 He's positioning himself until he gets right underneath the female. 520 00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:03,040 He goes into that dramatic pause. 521 00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:05,760 All the females are leaning over, looking at him. 522 00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:09,040 And as soon as he starts moving, they kind of relax and move as well. 523 00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:10,840 THEY LAUGH 524 00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:13,520 Go for it, boy. 525 00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:19,280 He eventually mated with all six of those females. 526 00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:22,560 This was the most successful individual bird of paradise 527 00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:25,880 that we ever saw - this male was the king of them all. 528 00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:29,880 This pause is terrific, isn't it? 529 00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:32,320 "Come on, girls." 530 00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:34,960 "This is it!" 531 00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:48,520 By 2011, Tim and Ed, after 18 separate expeditions to New Guinea, 532 00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:50,480 had succeeded in filming 533 00:38:50,480 --> 00:38:53,920 every known species of bird of paradise in the wild. 534 00:38:59,920 --> 00:39:03,200 We have come a long way from those first attempts 535 00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:04,840 to make drawings of the birds, 536 00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:08,920 which had to be based on no more than their shrivelled skins. 537 00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:15,640 Then came paintings, and finally film of them - 538 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:17,440 eventually in colour. 539 00:39:19,240 --> 00:39:21,760 But, of course, in the mid-19th century, 540 00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:24,040 the only way to see a living bird 541 00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:26,760 was to travel 8,000 miles to New Guinea, 542 00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:30,600 because no-one had managed to bring one back to Europe alive. 543 00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:38,200 It was Alfred Russel Wallace who once again was the pioneer. 544 00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:42,200 In 1862, he succeeded in bringing back to England 545 00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:44,120 two living birds of paradise. 546 00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:49,800 The Zoological Society of London, the London Zoo, gave him £300. 547 00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:55,480 An astonishing figure - worth about £30,000 today. 548 00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:58,320 They were the first birds of paradise 549 00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:01,680 to be put on display here, and they were soon the talk of the town. 550 00:40:07,720 --> 00:40:12,520 In 1957, I set off for New Guinea, not only to film the birds, 551 00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:16,560 but, on behalf of the London Zoo, to try and bring some back alive. 552 00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:26,320 Although we managed to film the Count Raggi's bird, 553 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:28,360 I wasn't able to catch any. 554 00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:31,400 But then I met a great naturalist and explorer 555 00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:33,640 who had settled in the Wahgi Valley, 556 00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:37,520 and had built aviaries in which he kept many of the species. 557 00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:39,360 His name was Fred Shaw Mayer. 558 00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:44,440 I found Fred with Bob, his hornbill. 559 00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:47,040 Fred has been collecting animals all his life, 560 00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:50,360 and in New Guinea alone, he's discovered five birds new to science 561 00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:53,320 including one bird of paradise. 562 00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:58,280 Fred gave me 13 birds of paradise of ten different species. 563 00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:07,360 I set out with them on the five-week journey back to London. 564 00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:16,040 And they ended up here in the old Bird House in the London Zoo. 565 00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:35,640 It was quite a difficult journey. 566 00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:40,080 We had to charter a little plane to take us to the island port of Rabaul 567 00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:45,840 off the eastern end of New Guinea, and there we found an old cargo ship 568 00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:49,600 that ploughed its way across the South China Sea to Hong Kong. 569 00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:53,680 Every day, of course, they had to be fed and cleaned, 570 00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:57,720 and we had plenty of fruit, but we discovered, as Wallace had, 571 00:41:57,720 --> 00:42:01,400 that what the birds really loved was cockroaches. 572 00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:04,760 And there were plenty of those to be found in the ship's kitchens. 573 00:42:06,720 --> 00:42:10,760 Then, from Hong Kong, we got a freight plane back to London. 574 00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:17,080 This big aviary here contains several of the birds of paradise 575 00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:19,240 which we brought back. 576 00:42:19,240 --> 00:42:20,840 That big one on the left 577 00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:24,080 is the Princess Stephanie's bird of paradise, 578 00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:26,720 one of the largest of the birds of paradise. 579 00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:33,080 And here's one of the smallest - the King bird of paradise, 580 00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:35,520 which is only a little larger than a robin. 581 00:42:35,520 --> 00:42:37,240 It's a wonderful little bird. 582 00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:45,160 Birds of paradise haven't been seen here in London Zoo since 1973. 583 00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:47,520 But that's because it's now illegal 584 00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:50,440 to export the living birds from New Guinea. 585 00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:53,920 Nonetheless, there are just a very few places in the world 586 00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:56,520 where captive bred ones can be seen. 587 00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:07,120 I'm heading for one of them - 588 00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:10,280 an unlikely location in the Middle East. 589 00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:18,680 Thousand of miles away from the birds of paradise's natural home. 590 00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:24,800 A sanctuary has been built especially for them 591 00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:28,080 by a 21st-century royal collector, 592 00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:31,800 Sheikh Saoud Bin Mohammed Bin Ali Al-Thani. 593 00:43:49,240 --> 00:43:52,280 Here, in the middle of the desert of Qatar, 594 00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:56,360 a breeding centre has been created for rare birds 595 00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:59,080 and animals from all over the world. 596 00:44:01,120 --> 00:44:05,880 The Sheikh has built Al Wabra, a state-of-the-art breeding facility. 597 00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:10,720 There we are. 598 00:44:10,720 --> 00:44:12,320 What about that? 599 00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:18,280 Here at Al Wabra they are experts at caring for exotic birds, 600 00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:21,280 like these wonderful Hyacinth Macaws, 601 00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:27,240 the largest of all flying parrots and very, very beautiful. 602 00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:38,640 They also maintain the largest captive breeding group in the world 603 00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:42,320 of birds of paradise, with over 90 birds. 604 00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:48,800 They get the best possible care, 605 00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:52,320 with particular attention being paid to their nutrition. 606 00:44:57,240 --> 00:45:01,160 They consume 160 kilos of papaya a week. 607 00:45:04,360 --> 00:45:07,560 And their favourite insect food is mealworms. 608 00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:14,280 Twice a day, freshly made, 609 00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:17,840 the meals are delivered to each of the 90 birds individually. 610 00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:25,480 Curator Simon Mathews is in charge of the birds, 611 00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:28,480 and his aim is to understand them better, 612 00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:31,720 and to improve their breeding success still further. 613 00:45:33,240 --> 00:45:35,560 Because the eggs are so valuable, 614 00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:39,960 Simon removes them from the nests to incubate them artificially. 615 00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:49,040 This is a very special and precious chick. 616 00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:51,840 It's a young greater bird of paradise, 617 00:45:51,840 --> 00:45:55,880 and one of the very, very few that have been reared in captivity. 618 00:45:55,880 --> 00:46:00,520 And Simon is now giving it one of its regular feeds. 619 00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:08,040 He has to feed it every two hours, up to nine times a day 620 00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:10,160 for nearly 20 days. 621 00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:14,080 He whistles to attract its attention. 622 00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:19,440 It's kept in an incubator for three weeks. 623 00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:26,880 But the most difficult part of the breeding process in captivity 624 00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:30,440 is getting the birds to mate without injuring one another. 625 00:46:32,200 --> 00:46:37,480 In the wild, male plumed birds form leks, as in Wallace's picture, 626 00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:41,720 where many males gather to show off their plumes to visiting females. 627 00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:48,640 The female then chooses the male she admires the most... 628 00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:55,120 ..mates with him, but then quickly leaves, 629 00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:58,880 avoiding the aggression that the males often show during mating. 630 00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:02,000 The difficulty for Simon 631 00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:06,000 is to ensure that the birds behave in the same way in captivity. 632 00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:07,840 To protect the females, 633 00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:11,880 he keeps the sexes separately and in alternate cages. 634 00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:13,360 He watches a female 635 00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:17,360 to see which side of her enclosure she spends most of her time, 636 00:47:17,360 --> 00:47:20,760 which suggests to him which of the two males she prefers. 637 00:47:23,760 --> 00:47:28,080 Once she appears to have made her choice, he opens a hatch. 638 00:47:28,080 --> 00:47:32,720 And then she flies in to briefly visit her chosen partner. 639 00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:38,840 Although courtship has been well documented in the wild, 640 00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:41,760 few people have ever witnessed the birds nesting. 641 00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:49,760 This is something I have never ever seen before. 642 00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:53,560 I have been so fascinated by the beauty, drama and glamour 643 00:47:53,560 --> 00:47:57,240 of the males with their splendid plumage and dances, 644 00:47:57,240 --> 00:48:00,400 I have never spent time looking for the nest of the female. 645 00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:04,600 And it's very unobtrusive, and very ordinary-looking. 646 00:48:04,600 --> 00:48:07,760 It looks as though it might even have been made by a blackbird. 647 00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:10,360 She makes it entirely by herself, 648 00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:14,120 and in it, she lays her one single egg, 649 00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:16,360 which she will rear entirely by herself. 650 00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:21,720 Most other species of birds work together as pairs, 651 00:48:21,720 --> 00:48:25,240 not only to make a nest, but to collect all the food needed 652 00:48:25,240 --> 00:48:26,840 to rear their young. 653 00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:31,280 And that difference is important in understanding 654 00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:34,360 why birds of paradise behave in the way they do. 655 00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:40,360 It's the fact that the female takes on the laborious business 656 00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:43,960 of caring for the young by herself that is the clue 657 00:48:43,960 --> 00:48:47,400 as to why the males have evolved such extravagant plumes. 658 00:48:51,400 --> 00:48:54,680 Over the years, many naturalists have puzzled 659 00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:57,120 over these fantastic plumes. 660 00:48:57,120 --> 00:49:00,000 Why should this one family of birds 661 00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:03,680 have taken feathered ornaments to such extreme lengths? 662 00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:06,440 And surely, having plumes like this 663 00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:08,720 must make it more difficult to fly, 664 00:49:08,720 --> 00:49:12,280 and therefore make a bird more vulnerable to predators? 665 00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:15,160 That certainly mystified Wallace. 666 00:49:15,160 --> 00:49:17,680 He described the males' displays 667 00:49:17,680 --> 00:49:21,320 as being nothing more than "playing" or "dancing". 668 00:49:23,080 --> 00:49:26,800 But their real purpose is much more important than that. 669 00:49:31,720 --> 00:49:36,320 This is a female King bird of paradise, 670 00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:38,840 and you can see she is very drab. 671 00:49:38,840 --> 00:49:42,360 Nothing like the glorious male. 672 00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:51,440 And it was Charles Darwin who understood the important part 673 00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:55,280 that she plays in the evolution of birds of paradise, 674 00:49:55,280 --> 00:50:00,160 because it's she who selects a male 675 00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:03,280 for the beauty of his plumage 676 00:50:03,280 --> 00:50:07,840 and that, over many, many generations, 677 00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:10,920 has led to the glories of the male. 678 00:50:12,720 --> 00:50:16,600 Darwin called the process in which a female chooses a mate 679 00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:20,440 based on his physical appearance "sexual selection". 680 00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:23,360 And the great variety of male ornaments has evolved 681 00:50:23,360 --> 00:50:27,440 simply because the females of a species have developed a preference 682 00:50:27,440 --> 00:50:30,200 for a particular kind of plume or colour. 683 00:50:32,160 --> 00:50:35,640 This trait, then, over many generations, 684 00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:38,360 becomes more and more exaggerated 685 00:50:38,360 --> 00:50:42,680 until eventually it can reach almost absurd extremes. 686 00:50:45,480 --> 00:50:49,640 The two magnificent long, white tail feathers 687 00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:52,880 of the ribbon-tailed bird of paradise 688 00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:56,480 evolved because the female ribbon-tails 689 00:50:56,480 --> 00:50:59,720 happen to like long, white tail feathers. 690 00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:07,080 They are four or five times the length of the bird's body, 691 00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:11,880 the longest tail feathers, in proportion to its body, of any bird. 692 00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:19,160 The remarkable thing is that all these plumes, pennants and capes 693 00:51:19,160 --> 00:51:21,920 have evolved from simple feathers. 694 00:51:21,920 --> 00:51:25,840 Of course, they no longer serve the original function of feathers, 695 00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:29,080 to keep a bird warm, or to help it fly. 696 00:51:29,080 --> 00:51:33,000 Indeed, if anything, they are an impediment to flight. 697 00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:36,120 Their only purpose is to impress the females. 698 00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:48,440 And it is not only birds that find such plumes irresistible. 699 00:52:03,440 --> 00:52:06,560 The people of New Guinea have always been well aware 700 00:52:06,560 --> 00:52:10,240 of the biological purpose of these extravagant ornaments. 701 00:52:10,240 --> 00:52:13,920 And when a tribesman puts on gorgeous plumes and feathers 702 00:52:13,920 --> 00:52:15,600 and displays them in dances, 703 00:52:15,600 --> 00:52:18,360 he is using them for the same purpose - 704 00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:22,920 to display his desirability so a lady might select him. 705 00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:25,040 DRUMMING 706 00:52:31,680 --> 00:52:33,760 To prepare the skins and plumes, 707 00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:38,040 New Guinea men still carefully remove the fleshy legs and wings 708 00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:41,080 to reduce the likelihood of insect attack, 709 00:52:41,080 --> 00:52:43,080 and to better display the plumes. 710 00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:49,280 So the reason it was believed the birds had no legs 711 00:52:49,280 --> 00:52:53,840 was because they had been removed before the skins left New Guinea. 712 00:53:06,720 --> 00:53:09,400 But why has this particular family of birds 713 00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:13,440 been able to take their ornaments and displays to such great extremes? 714 00:53:21,680 --> 00:53:26,120 The answer lies in the nature of New Guinea itself. 715 00:53:26,120 --> 00:53:28,400 The island is a relatively new one, 716 00:53:28,400 --> 00:53:30,840 having been pushed up from the bottom of the sea 717 00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:35,440 a mere ten million years ago - recently in geological time. 718 00:53:35,440 --> 00:53:38,920 So few land-living mammals have managed to colonise it, 719 00:53:38,920 --> 00:53:41,640 and most of those are harmless to birds. 720 00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:47,000 Echidnas, that live largely on worms, 721 00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:49,080 and a kind of kangaroo 722 00:53:49,080 --> 00:53:53,560 that bizarrely clambers around in trees, eating leaves. 723 00:53:59,240 --> 00:54:03,120 What's more, the lush, wet rainforests are rich 724 00:54:03,120 --> 00:54:05,480 all the year round in sugary fruits. 725 00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:11,400 And crucially, because the birds enjoy such a plentiful 726 00:54:11,400 --> 00:54:13,480 and energy-rich food supply, 727 00:54:13,480 --> 00:54:17,720 a female is able to raise her chick entirely by herself. 728 00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:25,720 And that frees the males to spend a lot of time and energy 729 00:54:25,720 --> 00:54:29,600 producing extravagant adornments and spectacular displays. 730 00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:35,920 So, fruit, that plays such a significant role 731 00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:38,040 in the Biblical view of paradise, 732 00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:41,400 has also created a paradise for these birds. 733 00:54:43,240 --> 00:54:45,680 Perhaps the name is apt after all. 734 00:54:48,120 --> 00:54:52,480 It's now known that the complexity of a bird-of-paradise display 735 00:54:52,480 --> 00:54:54,760 does not come entirely naturally, 736 00:54:54,760 --> 00:54:59,680 as Ed Scholes has recently observed in young male riflebirds. 737 00:54:59,680 --> 00:55:03,600 They start spending more and more time practising their displays. 738 00:55:03,600 --> 00:55:07,120 Riflebirds are using their wings, moving them back and forth, 739 00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:09,800 creating this interesting shape. 740 00:55:14,800 --> 00:55:18,120 Taking a turn at being the male doing the practices, 741 00:55:18,120 --> 00:55:20,760 and the other one is taking the role of the female. 742 00:55:20,760 --> 00:55:22,240 Then they alternate. 743 00:55:22,240 --> 00:55:25,320 And sometimes they're going on like this for hours, 744 00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:27,120 and getting very carried away. 745 00:55:28,760 --> 00:55:33,000 But when an adult male turns up, he sends them on their way. 746 00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:39,960 And it's not only riflebirds that have to learn to dance. 747 00:55:39,960 --> 00:55:43,800 Young male parotias start visiting display courts 748 00:55:43,800 --> 00:55:45,440 when they're three years old, 749 00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:48,880 before they develop the black plumage of the adult. 750 00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:52,280 And they use this time to practise their dance moves. 751 00:56:02,360 --> 00:56:04,720 It will be several more years 752 00:56:04,720 --> 00:56:08,400 before this one will be taken seriously by a female. 753 00:56:08,400 --> 00:56:12,160 It makes them look like a teenager, kind of strutting his stuff 754 00:56:12,160 --> 00:56:15,480 in front of the mirror when he's not quite fully developed yet. 755 00:56:27,080 --> 00:56:28,560 For five centuries, 756 00:56:28,560 --> 00:56:32,440 birds of paradise have fascinated explorers and naturalists, 757 00:56:32,440 --> 00:56:34,080 artists and collectors. 758 00:56:37,200 --> 00:56:41,800 So it was a very special moment for me to get so close when, 759 00:56:41,800 --> 00:56:43,560 because he had been hand-reared, 760 00:56:43,560 --> 00:56:47,240 this male bird-of-paradise actually began to court me. 761 00:56:51,240 --> 00:56:56,280 This surely is one of the great wonders of the natural world, 762 00:56:56,280 --> 00:57:02,200 just as Magellan's sailors said it was 500 years ago - 763 00:57:02,200 --> 00:57:06,520 even though, in fact, the bird does have legs. 764 00:57:09,320 --> 00:57:12,520 The displays of the birds of paradise 765 00:57:12,520 --> 00:57:16,920 have at last been recorded, both on canvas and on screen, 766 00:57:16,920 --> 00:57:20,640 in all their exquisite detail and complexity. 767 00:57:27,600 --> 00:57:30,200 Now, at last, we understand 768 00:57:30,200 --> 00:57:33,480 that it is the rich character of their island home 769 00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:37,360 that has allowed the birds to evolve in the ways that they have. 770 00:57:42,560 --> 00:57:44,800 And it's the female's preference 771 00:57:44,800 --> 00:57:47,720 for particular patterns, colours and displays 772 00:57:47,720 --> 00:57:51,240 that have led to the males' astounding finery, 773 00:57:51,240 --> 00:57:52,920 making them, surely, 774 00:57:52,920 --> 00:57:57,080 among the most stunning and glamorous birds on Earth.