Humans have had a unique relationship with raptors, nature’s aerial killing machines, for more than four thousand years, first through the ancient sport of falconry, and, more recently, as scientists and engineers have turned to these mighty birds — from golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, and turkey vultures, to great gray owls and the peregrine falcon — as the inspiration for the latest in aircraft design. Using the tricks and tactics of raptors as their model, engineers have devised fighter jets with unprecedented maneuverability and stealth.

In Raptor Force, you’ll learn the secrets of these astonishing aerialists, and how they’ve mastered, more than any other type of bird, the art of soaring. And with the help of engineer and falconer Rob MacIntyre’s ingenious miniature television station — a camera, transmitter, and battery small enough to be harnessed onto the backs of raptors — you’ll see for yourself what it’s like to fly with these deadly aces.

Online content for Raptor Force was originally posted February 2007.

To order a copy of Raptor Force, please visit the NATURE Shop.

NATURE’s Ravens explores how these all-black creatures acquired their dual and contradictory images — as birds of both life and death.

Long recognized as one of the most intelligent birds, the raven also has a less than savory image throughout history as a scavenger that does not discriminate between humans and animals.

Ingenious and versatile, ravens are members of the crow family, which includes jays and magpies. They are found everywhere in the northern hemisphere and adapt to very different terrain, from deserts to mountains — a feat requiring high intelligence.

They learn to find food even in the harshest conditions, such as the dead of winter in Yellowstone National Park. As scavengers, ravens know how and when to take advantage of other animals to help them cadge a meal they couldn’t otherwise reach. In Yellowstone, bison that don’t survive the harsh winter attract coyotes, whose sharp teeth and strong jaws rip open the tough, frozen hides — making the meat accessible to watchful ravens. They also have been seen following wild wolf packs to a kill; some stories even have ravens flying ahead of the wolves to lead them to prey.

To order a copy of Ravens, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Ravens was originally published December 2001.

Whooping cranes learn survival lessons from human surrogate parents on NATURE’s Flight School.

At five-feet tall, with a wing span of nearly 8 feet, whooping cranes are among the largest and most beautiful birds of North America. But hunting and other forms of human encroachment drove them to the very edge of extinction in the mid-20th century, when the head count for the last known flock plummeted to an all-time low of just 15. Legal protection, conservation measures, and artificial breeding programs have slowly lifted the number of whoopers to more than 400 today, of which nearly 300 are in the wild. But those are still dangerously low figures.

Enter Operation Migration — a group of scientists from the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, the International Crane Foundation in Wisconsin, and other conservation groups. To help ensure the survival of these endangered birds, Operation Migration maintains an artificial breeding program that prepares chicks for adulthood. Disguising their human appearance with whooping crane costumes, researchers meticulously train the chicks for flight. Using ultralight aircrafts, the scientists then lead them on their inaugural migration — covering more than 1,200 miles. The scientists are hoping that their experiment will enable the birds to grow up as normal adult cranes and successfully breed.

Follow the whooping cranes’ migration and share the excitement, perils and, in some cases, the heartbreak of the scientists of Operation Migration in Flight School.

To order a copy of Flight School, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Flight School was originally posted April 2004.

Humans have long revered eagles.

Eagles. For centuries, these seemingly larger-than-life birds have fascinated and inspired us.

We venerate them as living symbols of power, freedom, and transcendence. In some religions, high-soaring eagles are believed to touch the face of God. Legend holds that Mexico’s Aztecs so revered the birds that they built Tenochtitlan, their capital, at the spot where an eagle perched on a cactus.

Behind this extraordinary reverence, however, is the even more remarkable story of how Earth’s 59 species of eagles live their high-flying lives. That story is told in the NATURE program Eagles, which gives a rare bird’s-eye-view of these masters of the sky. Eagles documents the stunning acrobatics and the ferocious hunting skills that have made these birds the nobility of feathered society, from the plains of Africa and the rivers of Alaska to the forests of the Philippines and the seas off Japan.

When eagles come to mind, people commonly imagine some enormous hunter soaring above wide-open spaces on outsized wings. Indeed, eagles are among the world’s largest birds of prey. The largest, including the Harpy Eagle and the Philippine Eagle, can weigh more than 20 pounds and have wings that spread eight feet across. Using their massive, sharp talons, these giants can kill and carry off prey as large as deer and monkeys.

But not all eagles fit this stereotype: some are just small balls of feathers content to flap short distances, dining on insects or even fruit. The Crested Serpent Eagle, for instance, is no bigger than a pigeon and spends its days walking and climbing through its African forest home in search of snakes. And the African Vulturine Fish-Eagle is primarily a vegetarian, eschewing meat in favor of rich oil palm fruits.

Overall, scientists recognize four groups of eagles: The world’s 12 species of “serpent eagles” (also called “snake-eagles”) typically perch on trees and feed on snakes, frogs, and lizards. The six buzzard-like eagles are forest-dwelling giants, such as the Harpy and Philippine eagles, and prey on large mammals like deer.

Eagles glide for hours at a time.

The thirty “booted” eagles, so-called because feathers grow down the legs and cover the toes, include the widest-ranging eagle of them all: the Golden Eagle, which is found around the world and has learned to feast on an assortment of prey. In Greece, Golden Eagles even eat turtles, dropping them from great heights onto rocks to break open their armored shells. The eleven sea eagles, which include America’s beloved Bald Eagle, tend to specialize in eating fish and water birds — some even hunt flamingoes and poisonous sea snakes.

Biologists also recognize another significant difference among eagles: some are built to hunt in the tight confines of a forest, while others are designed to soar high above open plains and water with nary a wing flap.

The forest eagles, such as the Crested Serpent Eagle, have short wings and long tails that enable them to twist and turn easily — an advantage when chasing prey at high speed through tree trunks and branches. In contrast, soaring eagles, such as the Golden Eagle and Africa’s Bateleur Eagle, have short, wide tails and broad, long wings that enable them to glide effortlessly on rising air currents. There is a tradeoff, however: soaring eagles tend to be poor flyers, making every takeoff and landing an adventure! As a result, soaring eagles often hunt from high perches, where they can literally “fall” into the air and swoop down on unsuspecting fish and mammals. Still, soaring provides an efficient means of covering ground — a necessity for eagles living in areas where food may be scarce. Golden eagles nesting in Wyoming, for instance, often have foraging areas that cover 100 square miles.

To defend these territories and attract a mate, soaring eagles put on spectacular aerial displays. The airshows include death-defying swoops and seemingly suicidal dogfights — undertaken against both rivals and potential partners — that involve locking talons with the other bird and free-falling in a death spiral. The great American poet Walt Whitman, witnessing one of these breathtaking displays by Bald Eagles, described it as “a living, fierce, gyrating wheel,/ four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling,/ in tumbling turning clustering loops, straight downward falling.” Sometimes, the dogfights end only when the great birds crash into a treetop or, in rare instances, one dies from hitting the ground.

Eagles are known for their sharp vision.

Usually, however, eagle eyes are too keen for the birds to fly blindly into danger. In fact, eagles’ vision is among the sharpest of any animal. Wedge-tailed Eagles, for instance, can see twice as far as people. Studies suggest that some eagles can spot an animal the size of a rabbit up to two miles away.

In part, eagles have excellent vision because their eyes, which are very large in proportion to their heads, are densely packed with sensory cells. While humans typically have 200,000 light-sensitive cells per square millimeter of retina, eagles may have 1 million — five times more. Similarly, while humans have only one fovea, a funnel-shaped part of the retina where vision is sharpest, eagles have two. Finally, where people see just three basic colors, eagles see five, enabling them to pick out even well-camouflaged prey.

Unfortunately, even such remarkable traits have not protected eagles from harm. Around the world, many eagle populations are dwindling as a result of habitat destruction, hunting, and pollution. But conservation efforts are helping some species. In the U.S., for instance, the Bald Eagle has made a dramatic comeback over the last few decades. And on the island of Madagascar, the dramatic 1993 rediscovery of the Madagascar Serpent Eagle has raised hopes that its population also can be protected and restored.

Online content for Eagles was originally posted May 1998.

Experts are calling it the largest animal rescue operation in history. When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Louisiana, the city’s human residents weren’t the only ones trying to cope with flooded and devastated homes. More than 250,000 pets — from cats and dogs to parrots and fish — were left stranded by the storm’s destruction. Owners, expecting to return a few days later, left food and water for their pets. But days turned into weeks, and pets had to struggle to survive without supplies or the love and care of their owners.

NATURE’s Katrina’s Animal Rescue tells the remarkable and heart-wrenching story of those who came to the aid of these abandoned animals. Rescue workers venture into polluted floodwaters and break into abandoned homes to rescue dehydrated, starving dogs. Vets work nonstop to provide medical treatment to rescued animals. At shelters, volunteers help families comb through thousands of cages. Will there be a happy reunion?

Follow volunteers on NATURE’s Katrina’s Animal Rescue as they rescue animal survivors and reunite them with their families.

To order a copy of Katrina’s Animal Rescue, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Web content originally posted on November 20th, 2005.

NATURE investigates the sometimes exasperating efforts of people and wild animals to adapt to each other when their worlds collide in Animals Behaving Badly.

The escalating battle for space on this planet between people and wild animals has grown increasingly one-sided, as humanity asserts its domination. But a few intrepid species are successfully challenging, harassing, and even exploiting us on our own turf.

How people are dealing with these incursions — and what we can learn from them to the benefit of both wildlife and humans — is the amusing and enlightening focus of Animals Behaving Badly. The filmmakers traveled to various parts of the United States and Canada, and as far away as New Zealand and Australia, to show us examples of animals behaving “badly,” and of the varying human reactions.

To order a copy of Animals Behaving Badly, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Animals Behaving Badly was originally posted May 2003.

Everyone loves macaws. Playful, intelligent, beautiful, they are the stars of parrot parks and zoos, and the cherished pets of devoted owners around the world. All of which makes them prime targets for poachers, who can make enormous profits from illegal sales of the birds. Thousands are smuggled from the wild each year, and many die in the process.

In the forests of South America, several species of macaw are severely endangered. But there is hope on the horizon. Dr. Charlie Munn, a wealthy American who is also a leading ornithologist and world expert on parrots, has begun a campaign to promote eco-tourism as a means of saving the birds. Employing former poachers as conservationists, and providing locals with the means to start and maintain a trade in tourism instead of smuggling, he’s betting that instead of buying birds, their fans will pay to see them in the wild.

NATURE’s The Real Macaw offers bird lovers the rare opportunity to enjoy these beautiful birds in their natural habitats rather than in pet stores and cages.

Online content for The Real Macaw was originally posted February 2004.

Intrepid avian creatures attain new heights in NATURE’s Extraordinary Birds.

The gift of flight would seem reason enough for humanity’s fascination with birds. But there’s even more to it than that. Birds are remarkable for a wide range of exceptional physical abilities, for their indications of intelligence, and — for some species — their surprising level of rapport with humans.

In the small Indian village of Kundha Kulam, for example, birds’ arrival are a sign to the townspeople that rain will follow and that their crops would soon thrive. While falconry — the art of training hawks, falcons and other birds of prey to hunt — exemplifies the partnership men and birds can develop.

Humans have also relied on the more prosaic pigeon. Although city dwellers may dismiss them as flying rats, no bird can top the pigeon for courage and service to humankind. Since pigeons have the ability to find their way “home,” many were used in dangerous, top-secret missions in World War I and II, delivering important messages to Allied troops behind enemy lines.

Discover more amazing birds — from hummingbirds and peregrine falcons to parrots and barn owls — on NATURE’s Extraordinary Birds.

To order a copy of Extraordinary Birds, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Extraordinary Birds was orginally posted November 2000.

A Satin bower bird.

Today, one of the best places to see some of these unique plants and animals is the rainforest of eastern Australia. These misty woods are the dramatic setting for the NATURE program, Bower Bird Blues. At first glance, some of the creatures you’ll see may look familiar. The waddling, sharp-snouted echidna, for instance, looks much like a porcupine or a hedgehog. But it is no ordinary mammal: it is a monotreme, a kind of living fossil that lays lizard-like eggs and incubates them in a pouch. Similarly, the plump Brush turkey looks much like the Toms destined for our Thanksgiving tables. But this is a turkey with a twist: the male builds an enormous mound of rotting leaves, inside of which it incubates eggs. The eggs, however, don’t hold his young — his are being babysat by another male mound-builder! The mutual-aid arrangement helps females ensure that their eggs get careful care.

The star of this unusual menagerie, however, is the male bower bird, an accomplished avian architect that has long fascinated scientists with its remarkably complex courting behavior. Instead of using just showy plumes or a romantic melody to attract a mate, the pigeon-sized bower bird constructs an elaborate structure — a bower — on the forest floor from twigs, leaves, and moss. It then decorates the bower with colorful baubles, from feathers and pebbles to berries and shells.

The bowers aren’t nests for raising kids; they are bachelor pads designed to attract and seduce one or more mates. When a female arrives to inspect the bower, the male struts and sings. He hopes to convince her to enter the bower, where mating takes place. The female then flies off to build a nest close by, leaving the male to try to convince another female to join in a romantic tryst. Bower birds “exhibit pretty extreme display behaviors,” says Gerald Borgia, a University of Maryland, College Park, biologist who has been studying the birds for nearly two decades. As a result, he says, they are of special interest to scientists seeking to understand how such complex traits evolve and function. His research team, for instance, is using trip-wired surveillance video cameras and robotic birds to probe the hidden world of the bower bird.

A bower bird builds his “bachelor pad.”

A bower bird builds his “bachelor pad.” Overall, there are 17 kinds of bower birds in Australia and on the neighboring island of New Guinea. Some are known as catbirds, while others are called “gardeners” or “stagemakers.”

Each builds its own shape of bower and prefers a different decorating scheme. A few, for instance, surround their bowers with carefully planted lawns of moss. Others have been known to steal shiny coins, spoons, bits of aluminum foil — even a glass eye — in an effort to create the perfect romantic mood. Some, like the iridescent blue Satin bower bird, the star of Bower Bird Blues, even “paint” the walls of their structures with chewed berries or charcoal. For the male Satin, which builds a U-shaped bower from parallel walls of twigs, the favored color is blue. To decorate its “avenue,” as scientists call it, he collects blue feathers, berries, shells, and flowers. While some of these decorations are found in the forest, others are stolen from the bowers of other males; young males, in particular, are prone to this petty thievery. However obtained, the precious knickknacks are then scattered around the bower. The male then waits, passing time by constantly fine-tuning his structure and rearranging the decorations.

For many males, the effort will be mostly futile. A younger male, for instance, may be able to seduce only a single one of his dozens of visitors — or none at all. Indeed, many males get not even a single glance: in a recent study, 75 percent of female birds visited only one bower before mating. In contrast, older males often have potential mates constantly stopping by for a peek. These more experienced suitors may mate with dozens of different females in a single breeding season.

To order a copy of Bower Bird Blues, please visit the NATURE Shop.
Online content for Bower Bird Blues was originally posted April 1997.