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.
David Portnoy, a 15-year-old birding fanatic, thinks that he's made the discovery of a lifetime. So, on the eve of his father's remarriage, he escapes on an epic road trip with his best friends to solidify their place in birding history.
A down-and-out restaurateur and his neighbor hatch a plan to lure luminaries to their small Newfoundland town.
Jimmy Bancroft, a fighter pilot, who is recovering from injuries sustained during the Battle of Britain, and Hazel Court, a nurse, come across a pair of rare birds nestling in a field. After a run in with the army, and a couple of thieves, they, with the cooperation of the village people and the Ornithology Society, help the eggs to hatch. A wonderful look at life in a small village, during World War II.
Bird watchers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border share their enthusiasm for protecting and preserving some of the world's most beautiful species.
"The Winged Detectives" is a queer coming-of-age short film, which follows Reagan and her friends as they prepare for the annual bird-watching competition. Tensions quickly rise for Reagan with the introduction of potential new friends and the absence of a special team member.
With narration from Paul McGann, this ground-breaking film sets out to solve one of nature's mysterious phenomena: the Bewick swan's dramatic decline. A pioneering group of scientists and conservationists sets out to discover why we have lost nearly half the Bewick population in the last twenty years. Every year, these majestic birds make one of the world's toughest migrations, across perilous land, sea and skies. Somewhere between the harsh Tundra landscape and the south of England lies the key to their disappearance. We join extreme sportswoman Sacha Dench and award-winning wildlife cameraman Benjamin Sadd, as they follow the swans over 7,000 km, on a journey that pushes both humans and swans to the limits of their endurance. Cutting-edge tracking techonology and innovative filming techniques give privileged insight into the birds' hidden world, providing stunning aerial views and the personal stories of swans, Charlotte, Daisy-Clarke and Leho.
Peter is a socially awkward young man, whose only responsibility is to walk his nine-year-old neighbour home from school - over the heaths and green hills of rural England. As he makes a new friend in an ageing birdwatcher, Peter finds himself ensnared in a knot he cannot untangle.
In the first half of the 19th century, the French ornithologist Jean-Jacques Audubon travelled to America to depict birdlife along the Mississippi River. Audubon was also a gifted painter. His life’s work in the form of the classic book ‘Birds of America’ is an invaluable documentation of both extinct species and an entire world of imagination. During the same period, early industrialisation and the expulsion of indigenous peoples was in full swing. The gorgeous film traces Audubon’s path around the South today. The displaced people’s descendants welcome us and retell history, while the deserted vistas of heavy industry stretch across the horizon. The magnificent, broad images in Jacques Loeuille’s atmospheric, modern adventure reminds us at the same time how little - and yet how much - is left of the nature that Audubon travelled around in. His paintings of the colourful birdlife of the South still belong to the most beautiful things you can imagine.
It is a documentary about mostly inner-city birds. It is meant to examine their lives in a more metropolitan context as they become increasingly tangled in our everyday lives.
A short audiovisual portrait of Giulio Nick Piacentini, a young sound engineer with a hobby for nature photography. Realized for the Filmmaking Laboratory at DAMS RomaTre with Antonietta De Lillo.
Created in the Victorian era to widen the mouth of the River Tees for shipping, South Gare is a man-made peninsula extending four kilometres into the cold North Sea. Today, the industry it was built for has gone, but the Gare remains as a haven for all sorts of unexpected communities - kite-surfers, photographers, bird-watchers, scuba-divers and the people who simply appreciate its strange, lonely beauty.
Tomás, a birdwatcher and photographer, tries to give his career a push by taking an impossible photograph: an albino bird never seen outside captivity. To this end, he drags his wife and daughter to the Amazonian forest.
In 2016, Dutch birdwatcher Arjan Dwarshuis traveled the world to spot as many birds as possible in the span of one year, with the goal to break the big year world record (6042 species, set by Noah Strycker in 2015).
A group of kids find interest in birdwatching.
A park examination and memoir.
A British television sitcom set on Merseyside that revolves around the relationship between Malcolm, a polite and friendly but dull man from middle-class Meols, and Brenda, a sharp-tongued, rough-around-the-edges working-class girl from Liverpool. Instead of the typical 'will they, won't they get together?', after getting together in the first episode, the show is more 'will they, won't they break up?' Watching refers to both the acerbic people watching that Brenda does and the bird watching that Malcolm enjoys, much to the disappointment of Brenda.
Bill Bailey plays host to two teams of well-known personalities – made up of a keen famous ‘twitcher’ and another who’s really not that interested in ornithology – as they compete against one other in testing twitching tasks. Each episode, the beloved British comedian sets the famous faces six ornithological obstacles, including four distinct birding challenges, and two bonus campsite ones. These range from straight bird races (spotting as many different species in a set time) to drawing, photography and counting contests. Whoever wins the most rounds will be named top twitchers. The series takes Bill and the competing couples to some of Britain’s most beautiful and best birdwatching locations, from the tranquillity of Rutland Water to the sheer spectacle of thousands of migrating geese in the Solway Firth to the rugged beauty of the Isle of Mull.
