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Birds of paradise are known for vibrant plumage, elaborate courtship displays, and remarkable diversity across nearly 40 species....
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AnimalsTranscript
00:14Imagine creatures so beautiful that people thought they had come down directly from heaven.
00:20So striking that the first Europeans to see them thought they could only have escaped from the
00:26Garden of Eden. In fact that Eden was New Guinea, one of the last inhabited islands to be explored
00:36by Europeans and it remains virtually the only place where you can see these wonderful creatures.
00:43They were birds but unlike birds that anyone had ever seen before. They brought the image of beauty
00:51almost to the edge of absurdity. And their displays were even more extraordinary and bizarre than their
01:00appearance. Some of the most complex to be found in the animal kingdom. They may not have come from
01:07the Garden of Eden but they certainly deserved the name that the first European scientists gave them,
01:12the birds of paradise. Yet much of what they do is still unknown. More than 150 years after the first
01:22scientific observations of these creatures, in spite of innumerable expeditions and countless hours of
01:29scientific observation, we're still only catching glimpses, tantalising glimpses of these heavenly
01:36creatures. A new generation of scientists and film crews are attempting to put that right. But these
01:44remarkable birds don't give up their secrets easily.
02:00Another expedition is setting off to look for birds of paradise.
02:07But this one is different. This one is being mounted by the New Guinea people themselves.
02:14A new generation of local conservationists are concerned that paradise bird numbers may be falling.
02:26This team is led by Miriam Supuma. With her is bird expert Paul Igag.
02:41Miriam's love of nature began in a small village school in the mountains.
02:47To follow that passion, she learned English, got herself to university,
02:51and finished her ecology field work in Australia.
03:00Over the next three months, she aims to see and document 10 birds of paradise species.
03:09She has agreed to let our camera crew go with her.
03:21They're starting with the smallest of the family, the king bird.
03:33Minion searches for signs. You have to know what to look for, and she does.
03:41You can see peck marks on this fruit here.
03:48That's his call. But she just can't see him.
03:53It tends to like this area. One of the reasons is because of the light coming through.
03:57They're show-off birds, so they like to show their plumage, and the light complements their bright plumage.
04:06The signs are good. They decide to build a hide.
04:10It must be big enough to seat her and the camera crew.
04:17But there's a problem. A dead banana tree blocks the camera's view.
04:24Miriam has it gently pruned back.
04:34She's confident the birds will return. This is the mating season, when they become less shy.
04:43She discovered this when she was still a student.
04:47Working in the forest early one morning,
04:49she spotted a bird of paradise high in the treetops.
04:54And below it, another preening its plumes in the morning sun.
05:02And then they displayed.
05:06The sight changed her life.
05:11On that day, I noticed there were about six or seven birds of paradise
05:16singing and dancing, and it just continued for five or ten minutes.
05:20I stopped what I was doing. I was measuring trees at the time.
05:23And I was looking at it, just staring at it in awe.
05:32Naturalists fall in love with nature, and then come back for more.
05:40Seven years on, and experience has taught Miriam that the best way to observe the male king bird
05:46is to find his display perch, and then wait for him to arrive.
05:55It teaches you a lot of patience, doesn't it?
06:00And patience can often pay off.
06:03Oh, there it is. Wow. There. The king bird.
06:09It's facing that way with its back towards us. You can see the red back.
06:16It's gone up into the canopy.
06:19He's a deep chili pepper red with a snow white breast.
06:23Two long quills sprout from his tail, each tipped by a green disc like a coin.
06:29That was a... That was a real moment.
06:34Oh, there. There it is again. Wow.
06:38She's thrilled.
06:40With other males calling in the forest nearby,
06:42Miriam is sure that she's found a good population here.
06:49The male king bird will call to the females in the area.
06:57If none come, he will perform without them.
07:06After puffing himself up, he flicks his quills above his head and waggles them,
07:11making the little discs dance in the air above him.
07:22He's still hoping for an audience.
07:28Undeterred, he ends with a flourish.
07:31He swells upside down and locks his legs.
07:36And then he turns himself into a pendulum.
07:47The king bird is a soloist.
07:51The males of many other species display in groups.
08:01These are the greater birds of paradise.
08:07Males assemble every day in one special tree, waiting for a female to arrive.
08:14When one does, they all snap into action.
08:27And she selects the one she prefers.
08:33She's rewarded with a one-on-one, starting with pecs on the head.
08:40And eventually, she accepts him.
08:46While all the males may appear equally gorgeous to our eyes, females apparently detect differences.
08:53What's more, they nearly all mate with the same male.
08:58By selecting the finest plumes in this way, the females have increased the males' beauty generation after generation,
09:05and so brought these magnificent dances into existence.
09:14The spectacular beauty of their birds fascinates the people of New Guinea,
09:19as I discovered back in 1957.
09:27I knew that the bird-of-paradise plumes were important, and I quickly discovered just how important.
09:34The plumes are the equivalent of money.
09:37And an essential payment in the bargaining that goes on between families when fixing a wedding settlement.
09:47And when men want to dance.
09:53And what I saw 50 years ago is still going on today.
10:02Garoka town in the heart of the mountains.
10:05It's festival time, and feathers are still essential headwear.
10:20It's a key moment in the year for Miriam's research.
10:24Look at this, and then look at what's on the headdresses.
10:28The feathers of many different species of bird are used in the headdresses,
10:32and the team want to find out how many come from birds of paradise.
10:37These scenes are not very different from those I filmed myself half a century earlier.
10:44There were 500 of these men, stamping up and down monotonously and unceasingly.
10:50And as I watched them, I realised that here was the reason why no one had brought us birds of
10:55paradise.
10:56Miriam wants to see my footage from 1957 so that she can compare the numbers and species used by the
11:03dancers then and now.
11:06Each man was wearing the feathers of 30 or 40 birds.
11:10At this one dance, we were seeing the plumes of over 20,000 slaughtered birds of paradise.
11:18The desire to possess the beauty of the birds is an ancient obsession, still alive in these tribal lands.
11:33The island of New Guinea is huge.
11:36A thousand miles long, lying between Australia and the equator,
11:40it was pushed up from the bottom of the sea way back in geological time.
11:47A few land mammals from Australia managed to get here,
11:51including some marsupials such as the strange tree kangaroo.
12:02But there are no indigenous carnivorous mammals here.
12:08With fruit growing all the year round, this is indeed a paradise for birds.
12:22A few land mammals from Australia.
12:23Then, some 30,000 years ago, the greatest threat to their existence walked in on two legs.
12:32But today, there are people here whose only aim is to protect the birds.
12:39Paul Egag was brought up on the coast, a fisherman's son.
12:45Paul gave up the fishing life to study biology.
12:49He married a highland girl and stayed up here to pursue his love of forest birds.
13:00The call of the Vajiana bird of paradise.
13:10He's trying to attract females.
13:21Paul has seen many of the forest's rarest bird species.
13:25He builds platforms in the canopy where he can sit quietly and wait.
13:34Some birds are quite bold and seem undisturbed by his presence.
13:41Others are much more wary, like the magnificent rifle bird of paradise.
13:53Paul has been watching the birds intensively for over 15 years.
14:02His tracking skills are crucial to the project.
14:19Together, Paul and Miriam start to identify the bird populations that may need protection.
14:33Paul is taking Miriam to a remote village southeast of Garoka.
14:46As I did on my own journey to the interior, they have to cross high mountain ranges blanketed by forest.
14:55Between these walls of rock lie immense valleys, like the Wagi.
15:05Hundreds of tribes have lived on the island for thousands of years, separated by these barriers of water and rock.
15:19Eight hundred languages have evolved, some as different from one another as English is to Chinese.
15:29The language of Haya village is spoken only here.
15:34Even today, the only contact between these people and the outside world is the plane that takes away their coffee
15:41beans.
15:44It's a warm welcome back for Paul. He's been coming here for the last few years to help map tribal
15:50boundaries.
16:00This forest belongs to the Haya people.
16:03They have always been hunters, but now they're helping to record the rich wildlife.
16:14One day, all this may become a protected reserve. For now, it's hundreds of square miles of untouched mountain forest.
16:25For the villagers, a wildlife reserve could bring work and education. There's a lot at stake.
16:39The locals' hunting knowledge is invaluable for the project. Paul and Miriam need to find natural paths and trees in
16:48fruit if they are to locate all the threatened species.
17:00The three foot long tail feathers of the male black sickle pill are the reason why his kind is almost
17:07extinct locally.
17:12His brooms fetch the highest prices, but hunting here has now been banned.
17:22This trip is to find two special birds of paradise that are still unprotected by law.
17:29One of them can sometimes be seen in the very early mornings, busy on the floor of the darkest parts
17:35of the forest.
17:38Miriam is looking for the Parotia bird of paradise, a bird with a very special dance.
17:49The male Parotia is most particular about where he dances, and this could be the place.
18:02Paul is looking for the magnificent bird of paradise, a bird which also displays close to the ground and is
18:08therefore very vulnerable to hunters.
18:12Well, that's it, I said. That's the display coat, and that's it. We're going to get him there.
18:17We didn't want to spend a long time in that area because we want to come back and see the
18:21birds, so our presence there might, you know, you know, like, spoil everything.
18:30Six inches of rain can fall in a single day on Crater Mountain.
18:36And during the downpours, the birds of paradise shelter beneath the leaves.
18:47I was sitting in the high thinking we might not get to see anything because it did rain.
18:57And then I heard a male Parotia. You know, there were other males calling as well.
19:13Black as the blackest night, he seems to absorb all the light around him.
19:18He is Law's Parotia.
19:25On his head, six strange wire-like plumes, each tipped with a black pennant.
19:42On his chest, a shield of iridescent green and gold.
20:02This is his court, a stage he has carefully cleared so that he can dance unimpeded.
20:10Clearing away last night's leaf fall is essential housekeeping.
20:18A female arrives. She is comparatively drab with none of his flashy glamour.
20:24She's touring all the courts in the neighbourhood to choose a mate.
20:30He sets about impressing her.
20:39But one of his rivals is called by, uninvited.
20:48And he is followed by others.
20:56More females arrive and take up seats for the performance.
21:12Tensions rise, but nobody dances.
21:32Suddenly, one of the intruders mates with a female.
21:40Another male does the same.
21:42The court has become a free-for-all.
21:48It's not what Miriam expected.
21:51They just went straight into mating without even any dance at all.
21:56It's almost like skipping dinner and getting straight into dessert.
22:02It would be nice to see them actually dancing.
22:06Sitting in the hide for three or four hours is in front with all the mosquitoes.
22:09And you'd like to go away feeling that you've seen,
22:12you know, the whole performance.
22:16It's possible that the birds have been disturbed
22:19by the presence of humans in the forest around.
22:34It will be several days before they venture back to try another filming session.
22:44Paul has been searching for the magnificent bird of paradise for a few days now.
22:49Listening for their calls and quietly assessing their numbers.
22:54He recently saw one far from here in the town market.
23:03All birds of paradise have a street value.
23:07It's not illegal for local people to hunt them or sell them.
23:10They're a way of making some cash.
23:14This is a magnificent bird of paradise.
23:16The hunters have mounted the bird's skin, complete with feathers, on a stick,
23:20ready to be stuck into a headdress.
23:30Another bird wanders by, a pheasant pigeon, feeding on the forest floor.
23:46This is a female magnificent.
23:51And here's another.
23:55Things look promising.
23:57They can only have come for one reason.
24:02A flicker of gold, and there he is, the magnificent bird of paradise.
24:14The male magnificent is clearing away leaves that have fallen on his cord.
24:22Doves and pigeons are helping by picking up a few seeds.
24:33He's stripping away moss and leaves, letting shafts of sunlight into his display cord.
24:40He wants to look his best.
24:44It's really interesting to see magnificent bird of paradise.
24:48Because the feather itself is quite bright, and you can see it out there.
24:52It's like a flame.
24:56The stage seems set.
24:58But there's a distraction.
25:00Another male.
25:05There's a standoff between the two males.
25:09Then, the females take action.
25:15Surprisingly, they charge the intruder.
25:22And drive him out.
25:32With his stage now to himself, the courtmaker can give the most interested female all his attention.
25:49He begins to transform himself for her.
25:56Puffing and pulsing his breast feathers creates a special effect.
26:01An emerald green heart-shaped breast shield to dazzle her with.
26:09Next to his eyes, two tiny iridescent spots flash at her.
26:18You might think that this little jewel of a bird was one of a kind.
26:24But he has a cousin on an offshore island that, in isolation, has changed into a different species.
26:32Wilson's bird of paradise.
26:34Both have those sickle-shaped tail quills.
26:37But his cousin has a bald head.
26:40And his scalp is blue.
26:44And whereas the magnificent's back is golden yellow, his cousin's back has turned red.
26:59Different populations, isolated in different areas, are still evolving different plumes to match the tastes of the local females.
27:18We were thinking, when is mating taking place?
27:21When is mating taking place?
27:22And he made it sort of an activity that probably goes on for a while until only the birds know
27:28when is the right time.
27:32It's Paul's first sighting of a magnificent bird of paradise, after 15 years working in the forest.
27:44Several days later, Miriam returns to the court of the parotia.
27:51The male is back on his dancing ground.
27:55But the camera can't get a proper view.
27:58A log has dropped.
28:01It's too late to build another hide.
28:04Instead, the crew has to make adjustments.
28:08The log is propped up.
28:13There is a risk, of course, that the court owner will notice the change and never come back.
28:22But he does.
28:25It's a very promising start.
28:32He removes little bits of litter and prepares to perform one of the most complex dance routines in the whole
28:40bird world.
28:41And he doesn't know.
28:42To make a look.
29:02It's also late to make a look.
29:03It's kind of weird.
29:04It's kind of weird.
29:04It's weird.
29:05It's weird.
29:07It's weird.
29:37But now, there's trouble. An intruder. Another male.
30:17But the owner of the court is not put off.
30:37And that is how it's supposed to be.
30:40And that is how it's supposed to be.
31:33And that is how it's supposed to be.
31:40Seeing the parotia dance gives Miriam an insight into the intimate rituals of her people.
31:50When I was sitting in the hide, I was thinking back to people here in Papua New Guinea.
31:54They have these gatherings where they go into a hut and sit in a row, alternating male, female, male, female.
32:00They start singing and rocking their heads back and forth.
32:03It's like picking out someone they fancy.
32:06And I can understand why when they do their traditional dance, they put the feathers on.
32:12Probably to them represents something, you know, that's kind of sacred they find in the forest.
32:20And because of the birds' behavior, it's a very unique and special bird.
32:35Papuans are steeped in the mysteries of their tribal past.
32:39Papuans are steeped in the forest.
32:40Papuans are steeped in the forest.
32:41Nobody knows it all.
32:43Only that birds and humans have been together for thousands of years.
32:51Papuans are steeped in the forest.
32:52The desire to possess the beauty of the birds is an ancient obsession.
33:06Everywhere the paradise birds are hunted
33:09and their plumes treasured
33:12and stored on the rafters in houses throughout the land
33:30These precious feathers are kept in bamboo tubes
33:33ready to adorn the bodies of a new generation
33:38to help them begin a new cycle of human life
34:06Miriam and her team are counting feathers
34:10She wants clues as to which birds are suffering most from hunting
34:17They question the dancers about where and how they got their feathers
34:27She's keen to know about one species in particular
34:31What I have here is the bluebird of paradise
34:35I've seen it worn by some of the highlanders
34:39It's a very vulnerable bird and its feathers fetch high prices
34:43It's been hunted heavily in the past
34:45I haven't seen it displayed in the wild
34:48and if I were, that would be something
34:52In the meantime, beliefs die hard
34:55But among them, there are some that can actually protect the birds
35:06There's a fear of angering the spirit world
35:09And where spirits live, hunters will not go
35:18Imagine a mountain that is, you know, covered with forest
35:22No one goes up there
35:24People believe that there is spirit up there
35:28People, you know, don't touch the mountain
35:30So that forest remains intact
35:39For us, working for conservation, it works perfectly
35:42It leaves the place unspoiled
35:49Early one morning, Paul and Miriam begin climbing up to part of the forest
35:54Where hunters fear to tread
35:56To look for two special birds of paradise
36:02Different species live at different altitudes
36:05Depending on the rainfall
36:06And the type of fruit trees growing at different levels
36:14Even today, not a great deal is known about these birds
36:17Where they nest
36:19How they raise their young
36:21Where the species overlap
36:22Even interbreed
36:26Biologists are still trying to find the answers
36:33Fieldwork like this brings its own delights
36:43It's a challenge in itself to working
36:46Being a researcher and working in a remote area
36:49Sometimes you get to spend months and months out in the field
36:53And you miss your comforts in life
36:58The trade-off is that you get to listen to birds singing in the morning
37:02You know, you wake up to that every day
37:08Miriam is looking for the blue bird of paradise
37:13In undisturbed forest, she hopes to find populations of birds
37:16That will be less wary of humans
37:26Paul is looking for the superb bird of paradise
37:30Whose breast feathers are so sought after
37:36It calls in the dense mid canopy
37:39But it displays on or near the ground
37:41And in open spaces
37:47A large fallen tree
37:49And there's a hopeful sign here
37:52On one side, some of the moss is missing
37:55Small dancing feet could have rubbed it away
37:59This could be a good place to watch for the superb
38:03But the weather is not good
38:16In wind and rain, birds, like people, take shelter
38:20There is nothing to be done except wait for a break in the weather
38:27It's now getting late in the birds' breeding cycle
38:30Their displays are becoming less frequent and intense
38:40It's been six days since the team built the hide beside the fallen tree
38:45Paul arrives in the rain at five each morning
38:49And leaves in the rain at noon
38:52And the fallen tree is just remaining a fallen tree
39:00In a damp thicket, Miriam is keeping vigil for the bluebird
39:11Day seven
39:13And finally, a visitor to Paul's log
39:16But it's only a ground dove
39:22That's the call of the superb
39:24He's making an advertising call from a high point
39:31And it's not far from Paul's hide
39:38It's nearby
39:40After many days of solid rain
39:42The birds are quickly becoming active again
39:47Miriam's bird, a blue bird
39:48Has come to the edge of the thicket and is calling
39:51I wonder if that's the same bird or two different birds
39:57Shhh, shhh
39:59Shhh, shhh
40:00Paul's bird is calling non-stop
40:03Shhh, shhh
40:05And there he is
40:11There's that fabulous green and blue breast shield
40:16Shhh, shhh, shhh, shhh
40:25He's trying to entice a female down from the canopy
40:28He's trying to entice a female down from the canopy
40:31Shhh, shhh
40:33Shhh, shhh
40:35But that's not her
40:36Shhh, shhh, shhh
40:37The call seems to irritate him
40:42Shhh, shhh, shhh
40:44Shhh, shhh
40:44Shhh, shhh
40:46And there she is
40:51He transforms himself
40:58A black cape appears behind his head
41:04Then he moves into a trance-like state
41:07And he dances
41:09And there she is
41:36Success
41:40and here is that performance again all is not what it seems
41:49those spots that look like eyes are in fact feathers reflecting the dawn light
41:55that clicking noise is not his wings striking the wood but quills flicking against one another
42:01like the clicking of fingers bizarre and beautiful no wonder his breast shield is so treasured
42:14by human dancers
42:25it's day nine miriam is still waiting for the bluebird to appear in the thicket in front
42:31of her
42:39he calls from nearby trees could the hide be putting him off
42:49at last he comes and takes up his position on his favorite branch in his own special way
43:05so
43:06so lucky day
43:19i've never seen anything like this this is crazy
43:37it's a performance of such exquisite beauty
43:40it seems unfair that no female is here to see it he's serenading like a love-struck romeo but the
43:47balcony above
44:17is empty
44:18it's what makes them so extraordinary
44:27the next morning the male bluebird returns
44:57the new
45:06suddenly he stops
45:15Miriam has seen something off camera
45:17there's a female in the tree above
45:28and now she's here his performance changes
45:32his pulsing gives way to a subtle low buzzing
45:36that also throbs
45:39it's barely audible to human ears
45:41but the microphone picks it up loud and clear
45:48it's an unearthly sound that he only makes in her presence
45:52there's nothing like it to be heard anywhere else in the bird world
46:33the vibrating movement and the puffing of the chest
46:37to expose the black patch was
46:39you know something intimate
46:41and it only did that when the female was next to him
46:44just looking at it was
46:46you know gave you a sense of guilty pleasure
46:48just looking at them
46:49it was something intimate
46:52going on between the two birds
46:56moving closer
46:57but without touching him
46:59the female seems to be studying every feather
47:02of his vibrating body
47:05surely he's done enough
47:10but no
47:12and then all of a sudden
47:14she just flew away
47:17and it was like
47:18oh come on
47:20for the male to go through all that
47:22it was excruciating
47:24just to put all that energy into it
47:27I think for him
47:29it was like
47:29okay maybe we'll try another day
47:31yeah
47:33yet his effort is the whole point
47:38males can but try their best
47:40the rest is up to the females
47:42and it was ever thus
47:52the plaintive call of the rejected male
47:54echoes across the mountains
47:57these dances have been performed here for millennia
48:01but for how much longer
48:08Miriam and her team
48:10have made a good start on their project
48:12but much more work needs to be done
48:16we need numbers
48:18in order to do that
48:19we need to do research
48:19so we need numbers
48:21so that we can see
48:23how they're fluctuating with time
48:25and with the different factors
48:27human population growth
48:28hunting disturbance
48:29forest clearing
48:31so we can understand their conservation status better
48:38meanwhile
48:39to preserve the feathers that the dancers already have
48:42the team are handing out moth balls
48:45these can be put inside the bamboo tubes
48:48in which the feathers are stored
48:50and so save them from decay
48:53that should reduce the demand
48:55for freshly hunted plumes
48:57and they also have to
49:00if we were to lose one of these birds
49:03or two
49:04it could mean the loss of something
49:06that people hold close to their hearts
49:21Papua New Guineans
49:22are now caring for their birds in a new way
49:27the birds have survived
49:28the tribal culture
49:29for thousands of years
49:30but the world is changing
49:33and their forest is changing
49:36Miriam and Paul
49:37are starting a new conservation movement
49:40to ensure that generations to come
49:43will still be able to delight
49:45in these astonishing birds of paradise
49:48thank you in the background
49:49and the rarely
49:49and the love of them
50:15is changing
50:15andrum
50:18Corcoror
50:18and the hill
50:18by belief
50:18will soon
50:18Oh, oh, oh.
50:56Oh, oh.
51:18Oh, oh.
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