Hummingbirds are the tiniest of birds, yet they are some of the toughest, most energetic creatures on the planet. Their unique flying abilities give them unmatched maneuverability, but at the cost of a supercharged metabolism that keeps them on the edge of survival. Hummingbirds spend most their lives in fast forward, but now high-speed video lets us enter their world. Buy the DVD. This film premiered January 10, 2010.

Because hummingbirds live their lives in fast forward, much of their fascinating world is typically lost to human perception. But using cameras able to capture over 500 images a second, the hummingbirds’ magical world can finally be seen and appreciated. Amazing footage shows these little powerhouses are far more than delicate nectar gatherers — they are also deadly predators. And watch as the birds display their elaborate mating rituals, showing off with nose dives that subject them to over ten G’s of force — enough to cause an experienced fighter pilot to black out!

These tiny marvels dazzle and delight bird watchers all over the world, and NATURE reveals their stunning abilities as they have never been seen before.

The Cape Griffon vulture, the largest bird of its kind in Africa, is also one of the most endangered. Listed as “vulnerable” to extinction by the World Conservation Union (which is similar to “threatened” on the Endangered Species List) the Cape Griffon vulture has suffered a significant population decline over the past few decades. Among the dangers faced by the Capes, which are confined to a small area of south and southwest Africa, is electrocution on power lines. In addition, changes in the migration patterns of large game herds and an increase in domesticated animals (which are usually buried when they die) have diminished the amount of food available to the birds and led to dietary insufficiencies.

Of more concern, however, are mass accidental poisonings, says Maria Diekmann of the Rare and Endangered Species Trust (REST) in Namibia, where Cape Griffon vultures are the most endangered of all animal species. Farmers and ranchers commonly poison the carcasses of animals to kill predators like leopards and jackals, which prey on their livestock; the birds, which are carrion eaters and feed exclusively on dead animals, are inadvertently poisoned. “Poison is cheap, easy and effective. The problem is that they do it incorrectly or get incorrect information from the supplier and instead kill non-targeted species. I am also a farmer — our farm faces the cliffs of the last roosting site in Namibia — so I know the problems that they can have. We try hard to work with them,” says Diekmann.

Because of the gregarious nature of vultures, large numbers of the animals can be poisoned at once. “Vultures are incredibly social when eating,” Diekmann explains. “Numbers are security, so they will often wait until there are hundreds of birds to begin eating. A lot of followers and not many leaders. The problem is that if a carcass is poisoned you can kill 50 to 500 birds at once. I cannot think of any other species that this is possible with, and the Asian vulture crisis — 10 million birds dead in just over 10 years — has proved this.”

The Cape Griffon vulture has suffered a significant population decline over the past few decades.

“The Cape Griffon vulture is what I would call a ’super vulture.’ It is bigger, eats more, only roosts on cliffs; the needs are more specific. I think that all of our vulture species are declining. We just see it in the Cape first as the numbers were lower to begin with. [It] is an indicator species of what is probably going on with them all,” she says. The decline of vultures has particularly dramatic implications for the rest of the ecosystem. This is because vultures rapidly consume the bacteria-riddled bodies of dead animals, which would otherwise spread disease. The vultures themselves appear to be immune to many of these diseases. “The fact that they eat together and can consume a carcass in an hour seems to prevent most of these diseases from spreading to our wildlife and domestic animals,” Diekmann says.

To help conserve the Capes, Diekmann and her colleagues with REST, along with other vulture experts, have begun outfitting the birds with satellite telemetry collars, which allow their flight, breeding, and feeding patterns to be monitored and provide information about the sources of contaminants in their environment. “This gives us baseline data to work from, instead of checking the wind and guessing,” she says.

With these and other efforts, Diekmann is hopeful that the Capes can be saved: “Vultures respond well to conservation. A little goes a long way. If we can handle the poison issue, which we are starting to, that can save the population. I am not much of a gambler; I go for the win, and a loss here would be too big of a loss.

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The contest is now closed.

Beautiful, elegant, and intelligent, parrots have long been coveted and caged by humans. With over 340 species living in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceana tropic zones, our world should be brimming with parrots. But today, parrots are one of the most threatened families of birds. Nearly a third of parrots worldwide are threatened — a statistic three times greater than the threat to all bird species.

Several factors are responsible for such grim statistics about these colorful birds. Poaching for the pet trade may be the biggest. The stress and damage from the capture, transit, and quarantine of parrots take a serious toll on the fragile birds. It is estimated that for every parrot in a pet store, three have died in transit. Ever since the Wild Bird Conservation Act made it illegal to commercially import parrots into the United States from countries without conservation strategies, most pet shop parrots are captive-bred. However international trade in wild-caught parrots remains a concern. It is estimated that 88 percent of parrots, parakeets, and lovebirds imported into Britain between 1995 and 2000 were caught in the wild.

Destruction of their natural habitats due to clearing of tropical rainforest and to agricultural development has also taken its toll. To make matters worse, as seen in “Parrots in the Land of Oz,” parrots are grain eaters and so are treated as pests by farmers.

The biggest parrot victims appear to be the larger, more colorful parrots like macaws and cockatoos. Not only are they more sought after but they have smaller broods; hence, it takes them longer recover and repopulate. The largest flying parrot, and possibly the noisiest, the macaw has paid a price for its willingness to be tamed and trained as a human pet. Over half of all macaw species are on the endangered list. The Spix’s macaw, a delicate, pale blue bird, was considered one of the world’s most endangered species. For ten years, only one lone male was known to exist in the wild in a small arid region of savanna scrubland in northeastern Brazil known as the “caatinga.” Then, in 2000, this last wild bird disappeared. There is currently an international captive breeding program for the bird, and the hope is to re-introduce the macaw to the wild — eventually.

One species of macaw that scientists hope to save before it suffers a fate similar to Spix’s macaw is the red, yellow and blue-plumed scarlet macaw. With only 300 macaws left in Guatemala’s nature reserve, the primary-colored creatures are in danger of being wiped out in that country. At fault are poachers, drug traffickers and land invaders, who slash and burn the bird’s jungle habitat. Thousands of acres of forest are cut down to make way for settlers and clandestine airstrips for drug traffickers moving cocaine from Colombia up into the United States. To keep an eye on their numbers, researchers recently fit two scarlets with satellite collars to track them in northern Guatemala and southern Mexico. With hope, the watchful eye of science will help protect these beautiful birds from further danger.

While over one million may have roamed at the time of Columbus’ arrival, today less than forty Puerto Rican Parrots remain in the wild. Their decimation has been so relentless that the gregarious Puerto Rican Amazon, or the Puerto Rican Parrot, is one of the ten most endangered species of birds in the world. Habitat destruction throughout the 19th and 20th centuries drastically reduced the bird’s numbers. As early as 1968, conservation efforts began to protect this species with the goal of saving it from extinction. A recovery program sought to establish a wild population and hopefully down-list the species from endangered to threatened.

A diminutive, yet plump parrot with a small, fragmented range in New South Wales and Queensland, the Coxen’s fig parrot has virtually vanished from the wild. Sadly, recent surveys have come up with only a few fleeting sightings, and no active nests have been discovered. The Australian native’s original habitat included lowland coastal rainforests, but these have mostly been cleared.

If humanity is to reverse the trend and save these magnificent creatures from extinction, it is essential that we immediately begin to conserve the habitats of threatened parrots and to be aware of politics of the pet parrot trade. As smart as parrots are, only humans can stop the devastation that some of the most vulnerable species have experienced at our hands.

With plumage of intense and other-worldly colors, deployable regal crests, and behavior that ranges from coy to maniacal, parrots have little trouble attracting our attention. But what traits fare best for these birds when their goal is inspiring love in potential parrot mates? Is a parrot sexy in the eyes of other parrots because it is a good provider, attentive, talented, or beautiful?

Of the parrots’ many qualities, colorful plumage is surely its most spectacular: blue and gold; red and green; blue, yellow, green, orange, red. These brilliant colors are not just splashed on these birds; they’ve soaked right through. It would seem that the fantastically gorgeous plumage of parrots would be obvious sexual attractants for mates. But when the would-be mate is flying the same colors, how sexy is that? In fact, 75 percent of parrots species are classified as sexually monomorphic, which means that males and female resemble each other physically.

It turns out that it’s not just color but the intensity of feather color that can be a turn-on to a prospective mate. Color intensity signals good health, immunity, parental care abilities, and breeding success — all key things to know if you’re in the market for a mate. In a study of wild Burrowing Parrots in Patagonia, Argentina, researchers found that the more intensely red the abdominal feathers on the parrots were, the better was their success in breeding.

Color intensity is a physical characteristic that we, as humans, can observe. But research shows that while male and females parrots of the same species look similar to us — they look different to each other. A parrot’s highly sensitive tetrachromatic avian eye can see the entire UV spectrum, while we only perceive light in the near-ultraviolet spectrum. So there’s a whole world of fluorescent color that a parrot’s eyes can visualize that our humans eyes just can’t.

Budgerigars have yellow fluorescent plumage on their crowns and cheeks. To determine if the fluorescent patches are used in courtship displays, researchers covered the crown feathers of male and female birds with sunscreen, limiting their ability to absorb UV light. Other male and female budgies spent more time courting “glowing” companions, ignoring those with dulled feathers. What the study showed was that the more a suitor glowed, the more alluring it was to a prospective budgie mate.

But don’t get the wrong idea: in the parrot world, mating is not based on looks alone. Some parrots appreciate “talent” or showmanship in a mate. In the kakapo’s mating system, the males go to a prominent location, such as a hilltop, and create a courtship area known as a lek, or a group of bowl-like indentations dug in the ground. When the males gather, they compete for the best spots, and then begin calling for the females. The male mating call is a very loud, low booming sound that can be heard for several miles. The booming goes on all night, every night, for as long as several months. At the same time, the males spread their wings and do a hopping dance. When females show up, they pick out the best boomers and hoppers for one blissful night of mating.

It should come as no surprise that music can woo a female. A good, strong singing voice in the bird world indicates good health, strong immunity, and a successful partner. But a study of budgerigars found that while a female appreciates vocal abilities, she actually prefers to mate with a male who sounds like her.

Glowing plumage, fancy moves, and a beautiful singing voice go a long way toward attracting a mate, but nothing says sexy to parrots like regurgitation. Though sometimes used as a reward for sex, many parrot species use food regurgitation as a part of the courtship ritual. Parrot couples exchange food, and thus information, on the quality of mate. A healthy amount of regurgitation tells the female that the courter can provide for her and her brood if she decides to choose him.

Those vibrant colors, beautiful voices, and fancy crests may all look like mere adornments to us, but to a parrot, they’re clues about a potential mate’s overall fitness, genetic superiority, and superior traits for survival. Just like with humans, in the parrot world, “sexy” takes many forms.