0:00:02 > 0:00:03SQUAWKING
0:00:03 > 0:00:06For 500 years, these birds have been
0:00:06 > 0:00:10surrounded by myth and glamour.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13And I've got to confess that I've been fascinated by them
0:00:13 > 0:00:16for most of my life.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20This is just one member of a hugely varied family
0:00:20 > 0:00:24that, to my mind, includes the most spectacular
0:00:24 > 0:00:27and beautiful birds on Earth.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29The birds of paradise.
0:00:34 > 0:00:35And what's more,
0:00:35 > 0:00:39they throw light on some of the great mysteries of evolution.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49Why have the birds of paradise become the most diverse, bizarre
0:00:49 > 0:00:52and beautiful of all bird families?
0:00:54 > 0:00:57Why have they developed the most extravagant plumes
0:00:57 > 0:01:01and adornments of any group of living things on Earth,
0:01:01 > 0:01:06so that sometimes, they almost cease to look like birds at all?
0:01:08 > 0:01:11And why is it that this extraordinary family
0:01:11 > 0:01:12is largely restricted
0:01:12 > 0:01:16to one jungle-covered island in the Pacific?
0:01:16 > 0:01:19TRILLING
0:01:21 > 0:01:23Explorers and scientists
0:01:23 > 0:01:28have been puzzling over these questions for 500 years.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31Even today, by using the latest filming techniques,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34we are making new discoveries about their behaviour.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41This surely is one of the most spectacular sights
0:01:41 > 0:01:44anyone could see in the natural world.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01The mystery of the birds of paradise
0:02:01 > 0:02:04began back in the 16th century.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10In 1522, a ship returning to Europe
0:02:10 > 0:02:14from exploring the mysterious islands of the Far East
0:02:14 > 0:02:17brought with it, amongst other marvels,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20three extraordinary skins.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23They were very like this one.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26You can see it's a bird - there's its beak, and its head.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29And here are these long, feathery plumes.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33But it has no wings...
0:02:33 > 0:02:35and no feet.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37The explorers had been told that
0:02:37 > 0:02:41that was because these birds lived in paradise.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48The ship concerned was one of five
0:02:48 > 0:02:51that had set out in 1519
0:02:51 > 0:02:54to sail around the world for the very first time,
0:02:54 > 0:02:58under the command of the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08They endured catastrophic tropical storms and shipwrecks.
0:03:08 > 0:03:13Magellan himself was killed in a tribal war in the Philippines.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16But after three gruelling years,
0:03:16 > 0:03:21the Victoria, the sole surviving ship, arrived back in Spain.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25It was loaded with wonders and treasures,
0:03:25 > 0:03:29including those first specimens of birds of paradise.
0:03:33 > 0:03:38Magellan had been presented with these skins by a king
0:03:38 > 0:03:42in the Spice Islands - the Moluccas, as we call them today -
0:03:42 > 0:03:44in eastern Indonesia.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48When Magellan's men asked why they had no wings or no feet,
0:03:48 > 0:03:50the people had a problem,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53because they themselves had never seen the birds alive.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55They had been traded to the islands
0:03:55 > 0:03:59from islands even farther to the east.
0:03:59 > 0:04:00So they made up an answer.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04They said, "Well, it's because the birds float high in the sky,
0:04:04 > 0:04:06"among the clouds, feeding on dew,
0:04:06 > 0:04:11"and human beings only see them when they die and fall to the earth."
0:04:13 > 0:04:16So the first descriptions of these "birds of the gods"
0:04:16 > 0:04:19were far from first-hand.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22Yet they were accepted as fact by Europeans.
0:04:26 > 0:04:31This was one of the very first paintings of a bird of paradise,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34and it appears in the margin of a book of prayers
0:04:34 > 0:04:37written in 1540,
0:04:37 > 0:04:39to show the devout the sort of creatures
0:04:39 > 0:04:43they might expect to see when they got to paradise.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48But it wasn't only the pious who were interested in the discovery.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50So were naturalists.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54But their understanding of the birds was similarly clouded by mythology.
0:04:58 > 0:05:03This is the first volume in a great encyclopaedia of natural history
0:05:03 > 0:05:08published in 1599 by an Italian called Aldrovandus.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13And it's full of remarkably accurate pictures and descriptions.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16There's a toucan, for example.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19And here is a hornbill.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21But turn another couple of pages...
0:05:25 > 0:05:28..and a bird of paradise, without legs,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31floating in the skies. No wings.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36And here it is drinking dew from the clouds.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42Aldrovandus was so respected that this view of the habits
0:05:42 > 0:05:46of birds of paradise persisted well into the 17th century.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53It's hardly surprising that these pictures are wildly inaccurate,
0:05:53 > 0:05:57bearing in mind that they were drawn from those flattened skins.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01After all, no-one in Europe had ever seen wings or legs
0:06:01 > 0:06:04attached to these astonishing plumes.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07So it was not unreasonable for Europeans,
0:06:07 > 0:06:11who still believed in dragons and mermaids,
0:06:11 > 0:06:15to accept that these birds lived in paradise.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19But still no-one knew where the skins actually came from.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25In fact, the birds come from New Guinea.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30It's 1,000 miles long and lies just north of Australia.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33And there, of course, the people knew perfectly well
0:06:33 > 0:06:35the truth about the birds.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38They hunted them for the sake of their plumes,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42which they used as currency and in many of their important ceremonials.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47My first opportunity to see these wonderful birds
0:06:47 > 0:06:51came when I went to New Guinea back in 1957.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57We saw a wide, fertile valley ringed with mountains.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00This was our destination - the valley of the Wahgi River.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07Within a few minutes of landing, I saw coming towards me
0:07:07 > 0:07:10through the tall grass a party of tribesmen
0:07:10 > 0:07:13wearing magnificent feather headdresses.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19We filmed a celebration called a Sing-sing,
0:07:19 > 0:07:21during which tribal people,
0:07:21 > 0:07:26wearing spectacular headdresses of birds-of-paradise plumes,
0:07:26 > 0:07:28gather together to dance and chant.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34And I took these photographs.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37They displayed them during their dances,
0:07:37 > 0:07:40showing how wealthy each of the men were
0:07:40 > 0:07:43by having these enormous headdresses.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45That's Princess Stephanie's black tail feathers.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49These are King of Saxony's feathers from the top of the head.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53These are the red plumes of Count Raggi's bird of paradise,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56and these the yellow ones of the Lesser.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59When they came to have marriages,
0:07:59 > 0:08:03a party going to collect a bride would have to take a gift
0:08:03 > 0:08:06to the bride's parents of birds-of-paradise plumes.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09And they arrange them on these great banners.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14There's a front view of that with nearly two dozen sets
0:08:14 > 0:08:18of bird-of-paradise plumes all around the side of the banner.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21And down the middle there, gold-lipped pearl shells.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30For thousands of years, the plumes have been traded
0:08:30 > 0:08:33from this part of New Guinea right across Indonesia,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36up into South-East Asia and beyond.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46In Europe 400 years ago, many aristocratic families
0:08:46 > 0:08:48possessed cabinets of curiosities
0:08:48 > 0:08:52in which they displayed their collections of natural wonders,
0:08:52 > 0:08:57and specimens of birds of paradise were amongst the most precious.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Their splendour even caught the eye of British royalty.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17The young Scottish prince who was going to become Charles I of England
0:09:17 > 0:09:23had his portrait painted with his furry hat on the table beside him,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26and in it, his most treasured possession -
0:09:26 > 0:09:29the plumes of birds of paradise.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35Naturalists, seeking to curry favour with the aristocracy
0:09:35 > 0:09:38and get financial backing for their expeditions,
0:09:38 > 0:09:43promised to name any new species they discovered after their patrons,
0:09:43 > 0:09:45and indeed they did so.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50This is Queen Carola's bird of paradise,
0:09:50 > 0:09:52with plumes on the top of his head.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56This one was named after an Italian count,
0:09:56 > 0:09:58Count Raggi's bird of paradise.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00This one was named after Queen Victoria.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04And this one is Prince Rudolf's bird of paradise,
0:10:04 > 0:10:08though it's more often known these days as the blue bird of paradise.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12And here is Princess Stephanie's bird of paradise,
0:10:12 > 0:10:14with a great, long, glossy black plume.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Not all were named after royalty.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, fired with republican zeal,
0:10:27 > 0:10:31named this one Diphyllodes Respublica,
0:10:31 > 0:10:34the Republican or People's bird of paradise.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37But the popular version of the name didn't catch on,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40and these days we call it Wilson's Bird.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46Unlike the showy males,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50the female birds-of-paradise are drab and brown in colour.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56All look very similar, so you can well believe that they are related.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00It's just the males with their extravagant decorations
0:11:00 > 0:11:03that make the individual species look so different.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08But even as late as the 19th century, no European
0:11:08 > 0:11:12had seen anything of these birds except their dried skins.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15And people wondered what the living birds must look like.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20Errol Fuller, a collector who owns specimens
0:11:20 > 0:11:24of 37 of the 39 known species of birds of paradise,
0:11:24 > 0:11:28also paints them, and understands the difficulties involved.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36The early painters of birds couldn't go and see these things in the wild,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38and they couldn't see them in captivity,
0:11:38 > 0:11:42so they were presented with something like this.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47A dried, flattened skin that had been brought back from New Guinea,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and this was all they had to go on to make their painting.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52This is a Black Sicklebill bird of paradise.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56And the problem they had were things like this.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58What on earth are these?
0:11:58 > 0:12:01They look at first sight like wings. But they're not wings.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04The wings are down here. They're just ornamental plumes,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07and there are more ornamental plumes down here.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10So, what did the bird do with these in life?
0:12:11 > 0:12:15This is a mid-19th-century artist's answer,
0:12:15 > 0:12:17and it's wildly inaccurate.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23The Sicklebill actually displays like this.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31It takes him a little time to work up to his full display posture.
0:12:40 > 0:12:41There!
0:12:43 > 0:12:46He lifts up those feathery tufts on his shoulders,
0:12:46 > 0:12:50and holds them around his head so that he hardly looks like a bird.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58And he repeats the performance on the same display post
0:12:58 > 0:13:01up to five times every morning.
0:13:05 > 0:13:10It wasn't until 300 years after Europeans saw the first skins
0:13:10 > 0:13:14that anyone actually saw a bird of paradise displaying in the wild.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20And the person who did so was the British explorer
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Alfred Russel Wallace who, along with Darwin,
0:13:23 > 0:13:26first proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33Alfred Russel Wallace was a great naturalist and scientist,
0:13:33 > 0:13:35but he was not a wealthy man.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39He earned his living by going to the tropics and collecting insects
0:13:39 > 0:13:43and birds, and sending them back for sale to wealthy collectors
0:13:43 > 0:13:44and to museums.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48And he was obsessed with birds of paradise.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52In 1854, he set off for New Guinea.
0:13:52 > 0:13:59He became the first European ever to see birds of paradise display.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03Here is his description of that sight.
0:14:05 > 0:14:10"On one of these trees, a dozen or 20 full-plumaged male birds
0:14:10 > 0:14:12"assemble together, raise up their wings,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16"stretch out their necks and elevate their exquisite plumes,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19"keeping them in a continual vibration."
0:14:23 > 0:14:25"At the time of excitement,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28"the wings are raised vertically over the back,
0:14:28 > 0:14:30"the head is bent down and stretched out,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33"and the long plumes are raised up and expanded
0:14:33 > 0:14:36"till they form two magnificent golden fans."
0:14:45 > 0:14:49Wallace's description amazed the world, and his book,
0:14:49 > 0:14:53Travels in the Malay Archipelago, went on to become
0:14:53 > 0:14:57one of the bestselling travel books of the 19th century.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00I myself read it when I was about nine or ten,
0:15:00 > 0:15:05and the frontispiece to the second volume fascinated me.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Here are the birds in display.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13I yearned to go off and see such a sight for myself.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24It was on that first trip to New Guinea in 1957,
0:15:24 > 0:15:29for a television series called Zoo Quest, that I got my chance.
0:15:34 > 0:15:35During the first month,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39we saw plenty of plumes of birds of paradise on headdresses,
0:15:39 > 0:15:41but none on the living birds.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44At just one Sing-sing,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48I estimated that there were 20,000 bird skins on display.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51It seemed to me unlikely that we were going to find
0:15:51 > 0:15:54many birds of paradise alive around here.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00So we decided to travel somewhere further afield,
0:16:00 > 0:16:04where there were fewer people, in order to find the living birds.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10We went to the north to a valley that was then quite unexplored,
0:16:10 > 0:16:14an "uncontrolled territory", as they called it at the time.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17The people were really still living in the Stone Age,
0:16:17 > 0:16:19making stone axes like this.
0:16:19 > 0:16:24We had to cross rivers with locally made suspension bridges,
0:16:24 > 0:16:26like this one.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28Or even had to wade our way across,
0:16:28 > 0:16:32and we had 100 porters carrying everything we needed -
0:16:32 > 0:16:36food, gifts, cakes of salt, that sort of thing.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38Eventually, we did find the birds.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47The valley was throbbing with calls of Count Raggi's Paradise Birds.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51As far as we knew, no-one had ever filmed the courtship dance
0:16:51 > 0:16:53of these birds of paradise in the wild.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55And this was to be our lucky day.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59We could see his gorgeous red plumes
0:16:59 > 0:17:01hanging from beneath his wings.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07The plumes which make him so coveted and so desirable a prize
0:17:07 > 0:17:09for all the people hereabouts.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13And then suddenly, in a frenzy of excitement,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17he threw his ruby plumes above his head, shrieking with excitement.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24Our film, even if it was in black and white and rather fuzzy,
0:17:24 > 0:17:28was the first record of a wild bird of paradise in display,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32and showed exactly how he erected his plumes.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40And this skin, which I found in a Paris flea market some years ago,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43is of the bird that we filmed in black and white,
0:17:43 > 0:17:47and here you can see how wonderfully rich its plumage was.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52This a trade skin, just as the people prepare it in New Guinea,
0:17:52 > 0:17:56without any legs and without any wings.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00Both have been removed to emphasise the glory of these plumes.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04After ten minutes,
0:18:04 > 0:18:08he executed a final flutter and flew to another branch.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12But this was only a single bird in display.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21It was another 40 years before I saw the group display
0:18:21 > 0:18:24of the larger and more impressive species,
0:18:24 > 0:18:28the greater bird of paradise, that Wallace had described.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35The birds are in another emergent tree just like this one,
0:18:35 > 0:18:39and I've got an absolutely clear view of them.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44This, at last, is Wallace's picture come to life.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56Wallace described the display very accurately, as you would expect.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00But he didn't understand why the birds were behaving like this,
0:19:00 > 0:19:02in a group.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12So even 300 years after the discovery of these birds,
0:19:12 > 0:19:16the purpose of their displays still wasn't properly understood.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23And it wasn't just the greater bird of paradise
0:19:23 > 0:19:25that perplexed naturalists.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31The second species of bird of paradise to arrive in Europe
0:19:31 > 0:19:33at the end of the 16th century
0:19:33 > 0:19:37appeared to be an even more bizarre-looking creature.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40It still had a pair of golden plumes
0:19:40 > 0:19:45sprouting from its flanks to justify it being called a bird of paradise.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49It seems to have been painted soon after its arrival,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52as the gold colour fades with time,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56and, like the first ones, it had no wings or legs,
0:19:56 > 0:20:00but it did have some extra, rather mysterious adornments.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06This is it.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09It's called the twelve-wired bird of paradise.
0:20:09 > 0:20:14That's because it has thin, naked quills sprouting from the tail,
0:20:14 > 0:20:18six on one side, six on the other.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20What were such things used for?
0:20:20 > 0:20:23Some people suggested that it wasn't natural
0:20:23 > 0:20:26that they were curled up in this way,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29that it happened because of the way the bird was packed.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32Others suggested that maybe it roosted
0:20:32 > 0:20:35by hanging from them upside down.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37Nobody had any idea.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43In the years that followed, more specimens of this bird appeared,
0:20:43 > 0:20:48and other artists made a somewhat better job of depicting it.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58But the function of those strange 12 wires remained a mystery.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05It was only on my second trip to New Guinea in 1997,
0:21:05 > 0:21:09when we filmed the bizarre courtship of this bird
0:21:09 > 0:21:12for the very first time, that we found the answer.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Courtship seems to be some kind of game,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24a variation of "I'm the king of the castle", perhaps,
0:21:24 > 0:21:26only with a very special prize.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42He deliberately brushed her face with his rear quills.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48He's doing it again.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51It seems that she prefers to be seduced, not by visual thrills,
0:21:51 > 0:21:53but by tactile ones.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01It may be an odd technique, but it works.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07So it took 400 years from the arrival of the first skin
0:22:07 > 0:22:11of the twelve-wired bird to actually record its courtship ritual
0:22:11 > 0:22:16and finally solve the mystery of the peculiar adornments.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20But there's another species
0:22:20 > 0:22:24whose display is perhaps the hardest of all to interpret from its skin.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27It doesn't so much flaunt its feathers
0:22:27 > 0:22:30as use them to entirely transform itself.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36This is the superb bird of paradise,
0:22:36 > 0:22:40and it has this wonderful shield on its breast.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44This blue colour isn't pigment.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49It's reflected light, like that that comes from a thin film of oil.
0:22:49 > 0:22:54So it changes according to how you view it.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56But that's not its only decoration.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00On its back it has a kind of cape.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03These aren't wings, they are just feathers.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08How would the bird have displayed that?
0:23:08 > 0:23:12That was the problem facing 19th-century bird illustrators.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18Artists did their best to work out
0:23:18 > 0:23:21how the birds showed off their ornaments.
0:23:27 > 0:23:32This version shows the superb bird's colours more or less correctly.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35But otherwise, it's nowhere near the truth.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40It wasn't until the late 20th century
0:23:40 > 0:23:42that ornithologists managed to work out
0:23:42 > 0:23:47just how the superb bird uses its feathers to transform itself.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50These drawings by the Australian artist Bill Cooper
0:23:50 > 0:23:52show just how it does it.
0:23:52 > 0:23:57It uses these long black feathers, which form a cape on its back,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00and brings them forward to form a funnel.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04Then the green... Iridescent green breast shield
0:24:04 > 0:24:07forms the base of the funnel.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11And in the far depths, there appear to be two eyes staring at you.
0:24:11 > 0:24:13In fact, they're not even eyes at all.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15They're white spots on its head.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22I think if in the 19th century any artist had suggested that
0:24:22 > 0:24:26that's what the bird did, he really would have been ridiculed.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31But no drawing can completely capture
0:24:31 > 0:24:36the extraordinary way the superb bird transforms itself in display.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43You just have to see the living bird.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45CLICKING
0:24:50 > 0:24:54The rhythmic clicks are made by flicking the wing feathers.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09In 1996, I was able to watch Bill Cooper at work
0:25:09 > 0:25:12as he painted another bird of paradise,
0:25:12 > 0:25:13a Victoria Riflebird.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21This is one of the few birds of paradise
0:25:21 > 0:25:24that is found outside New Guinea or its offshore islands.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27It lives in Australia, in northern Queensland,
0:25:27 > 0:25:31where Bill Cooper also has his home, in an unspoilt patch of rainforest.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34Come on, boy. Come on, gorgeous.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38Oh, look at that colour!
0:25:38 > 0:25:39- Here he comes.- Come on.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51Oh, you are lovely.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56As a young man, Bill Cooper travelled
0:25:56 > 0:25:59through some of the wildest parts of New Guinea,
0:25:59 > 0:26:01watching and painting the birds.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05It was Count Raggi's that he encountered first, as I had done.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08It turned and faced the female,
0:26:08 > 0:26:12and then the male started shuffling towards her,
0:26:12 > 0:26:13and he puffed out his chest feathers -
0:26:13 > 0:26:15I'd wondered what they were for,
0:26:15 > 0:26:18but he fluffed them out and formed a great pompom
0:26:18 > 0:26:20through which his beak was protruding.
0:26:20 > 0:26:21It was a great display.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30Bill Cooper, to my mind anyway,
0:26:30 > 0:26:34is the greatest of all bird-of-paradise illustrators.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38And this one of the blue bird in display is particularly successful.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41He's caught this wonderful intensity of blue
0:26:41 > 0:26:44as the bird hangs upside down.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46But what even Bill Cooper can't do
0:26:46 > 0:26:49is to show that the male blue bird, as he hangs like this,
0:26:49 > 0:26:54actually throbs this pattern here, making a noise at the same time
0:26:54 > 0:26:58that sounds like some electronic equipment that's gone wrong.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Images of birds of paradise have become increasingly accurate
0:27:15 > 0:27:17since those first attempts.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26The plumed birds, in particular, that dance high in the trees,
0:27:26 > 0:27:29became better known scientifically
0:27:29 > 0:27:32as explorers and naturalists travelled more widely
0:27:32 > 0:27:35through New Guinea's dense forests.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39However, a few species display not up in the branches,
0:27:39 > 0:27:41but on the ground.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46They are more difficult to observe.
0:27:46 > 0:27:51But we did manage to film one in display for the very first time
0:27:51 > 0:27:53on my trip in 1997.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57I have come to the island of Batanta.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01It has its own species of bird of paradise that evolved here
0:28:01 > 0:28:04and lives nowhere else.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06One way of trying to get a look at it
0:28:06 > 0:28:10is to put some leaves on this arena,
0:28:10 > 0:28:15because this bird is meticulously tidy.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18There he is!
0:28:21 > 0:28:24Wilson's bird of paradise.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29He's got his own fashion gimmick - the bald look.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36There goes the first of the leaves that I dropped.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38He is really quite small.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40Only the size of a starling.
0:28:52 > 0:28:53That looks like a female.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24He's clearly not much of a dancer,
0:29:24 > 0:29:27but with a costume like that, who would need to be?
0:29:35 > 0:29:37What an amazing bird!
0:29:37 > 0:29:40I've seen lots of coloured illustrations of them,
0:29:40 > 0:29:43I have seen mounted specimens in museums,
0:29:43 > 0:29:47but nothing has prepared me for the splendour of this wonderful thing.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53Although Wilson's bird is very spectacular,
0:29:53 > 0:29:56there are other ground-living species
0:29:56 > 0:29:58with much more complex dances.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07In 1876, an Italian explorer, Luigi D'Albertis,
0:30:07 > 0:30:10spent many months charting the territory
0:30:10 > 0:30:13of the then virtually unknown interior of New Guinea.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20During one of his excursions through the forest,
0:30:20 > 0:30:25his local guide pointed to a bird sitting on a perch in a clearing.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31D'Albertis's first reaction was to shoot and skin the bird,
0:30:31 > 0:30:35as he had done with every other specimen that he had collected.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38And he was just about to pull the trigger
0:30:38 > 0:30:43when the local man put his hand on his arm and said, "Wait."
0:30:44 > 0:30:48Then D'Albertis became the first European ever
0:30:48 > 0:30:51to see the display of the parotia bird of paradise.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54This is how he describes it in his book.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01"The bird spread and contracted the long feathers on his sides
0:31:01 > 0:31:03"in a way that made him appear now larger,
0:31:03 > 0:31:05"and again smaller than his real size."
0:31:07 > 0:31:10"And jumping first to one side, and then on the other,
0:31:10 > 0:31:13"he placed himself proudly in an attitude of combat,
0:31:13 > 0:31:17"as though he imagined himself fighting with an invisible foe."
0:31:19 > 0:31:23"All this time he was uttering a curious note
0:31:23 > 0:31:26"as though calling on someone to admire his beauty,
0:31:26 > 0:31:29"or perhaps challenging an enemy.
0:31:29 > 0:31:34"The deep silence of the forest was stirred by the echoes of his voice."
0:31:38 > 0:31:41And then he pressed the trigger and shot it.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43GUNSHOT
0:31:48 > 0:31:50"When the smoke cleared away,
0:31:50 > 0:31:53"a black object lying in the middle of the glade
0:31:53 > 0:31:57"showed me that I had not missed my mark."
0:31:58 > 0:32:02"Full of joy, I ran to possess myself of my prey.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06"But, as I drew near, my courage failed me.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08"I could not stretch forth my hand.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11"And, full of remorse I said to myself,
0:32:11 > 0:32:14"'Man is indeed cruel.'
0:32:14 > 0:32:17"The poor creature was full of happiness.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21"One flash from a gun and all his joy is past."
0:32:29 > 0:32:32Now, film-makers like Paul Stewart
0:32:32 > 0:32:36hunt the birds not with guns, but cameras.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39Using the latest ultra-sensitive filming equipment,
0:32:39 > 0:32:43he captured the parotia's behaviour in meticulous detail.
0:32:45 > 0:32:47The key to filming them
0:32:47 > 0:32:49is for them to have no idea that you're there.
0:32:51 > 0:32:53And the best way to achieve that
0:32:53 > 0:32:56is to build a hide with the help of the local people.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02You go in before first light, you leave after dusk,
0:33:02 > 0:33:07and in between you are as silent as you humanly can be.
0:33:09 > 0:33:17In 2005, he spent five weeks filming Lawes's parotia in action.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21Eventually, he saw the male start to clear his display area or court.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28And then he took a piece of damp leaf
0:33:28 > 0:33:33and was shining the branch that the female would first come into
0:33:33 > 0:33:34to judge his display.
0:33:36 > 0:33:41It was as if the male was directing her to a specific vantage point.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45Once he had polished the branch to his satisfaction,
0:33:45 > 0:33:47he began his display.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58He had a little bow tie almost of iridescent feathers,
0:33:58 > 0:34:03but rather like a comedy bow tie, this thing would flick up and down
0:34:03 > 0:34:05while he was displaying.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09Now, we thought, "That's making a nice flash at ground level."
0:34:09 > 0:34:13We should have suspected that there was more to it.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18In fact, he was looking at and filming the bird
0:34:18 > 0:34:20from the wrong angle.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24It took another film crew to reveal why.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30An American team decided to try and film
0:34:30 > 0:34:35every single one of the 39 known species of birds of paradise.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45Edwin Scholes and Tim Laman from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
0:34:45 > 0:34:48spent ten years crisscrossing New Guinea
0:34:48 > 0:34:50in search of these birds.
0:34:55 > 0:35:01There are four species of parotia and in one, Wahnes's parotia,
0:35:01 > 0:35:03they discovered something new.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10They placed the camera above the arena of a displaying male,
0:35:10 > 0:35:15and so observed his dance from a female's point of view.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20And it showed two details of the male's performance
0:35:20 > 0:35:23that can only be seen from above.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29The pennants on his head, seen this way,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32form a vibrating arc around his skirt.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39Then, iridescent lights appear to flash across the top of his head,
0:35:39 > 0:35:42something you just can't see from the side.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52And the bow tie of iridescent feathers
0:35:52 > 0:35:54has very much more impact from above.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08It is now known how the parotia breast shield changes colour.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13The feathers are arranged so they overlap like scales,
0:36:13 > 0:36:15and each feather has side filaments,
0:36:15 > 0:36:19each of which has three different reflectors -
0:36:19 > 0:36:25one that reflects an orange-yellow colour and two that reflect blue.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28And these reflectors are at an angle to one another,
0:36:28 > 0:36:30so as the bird moves,
0:36:30 > 0:36:33the breast shield appears to change colour, like this.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41And the parotia family held yet more secrets,
0:36:41 > 0:36:46as Ed Scholes and Tim Laman revealed when they visited me in Bristol.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49- Nice to meet you!- Where are we going to sit?- Right here.- OK.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54I can't wait to see this stuff.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56They had filmed the courtship display
0:36:56 > 0:37:00of the Queen Carola's parotia, that I had never seen before.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04Oh! I can immediately see it's different, with those white flanks.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08There's a female there...
0:37:08 > 0:37:10Oh, yeah. She's much lighter.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13- There's another at the back. - Oh, yes. Three females now.
0:37:15 > 0:37:20- Four!- They keep coming.- Look at that, look at how intense they are.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23- Ah! It's starting. - See this figure of eight,
0:37:23 > 0:37:25where he's bouncing back and forth fluttering his wings.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28If you were to trace the feathers on the back of his head,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31and slow it down, it would make a perfect figure of eight.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34And they're always perched above the display?
0:37:34 > 0:37:38- That's right.- It's a really important part of the court.
0:37:38 > 0:37:39The male selects that spot
0:37:39 > 0:37:43because it has that perch for his audience to watch from.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46And the audience really knows where the best place is.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49The dance is facing upwards.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53Here he is, see this hop and shake. Hop and shake.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57He's transformed himself into this ballerina-like skirt shape.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01He's positioning himself until he gets right underneath the female.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03He goes into that dramatic pause.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05All the females are leaning over, looking at him.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09And as soon as he starts moving, they kind of relax and move as well.
0:38:09 > 0:38:10THEY LAUGH
0:38:11 > 0:38:13Go for it, boy.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19He eventually mated with all six of those females.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22This was the most successful individual bird of paradise
0:38:22 > 0:38:25that we ever saw - this male was the king of them all.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29This pause is terrific, isn't it?
0:38:30 > 0:38:32"Come on, girls."
0:38:33 > 0:38:34"This is it!"
0:38:41 > 0:38:48By 2011, Tim and Ed, after 18 separate expeditions to New Guinea,
0:38:48 > 0:38:50had succeeded in filming
0:38:50 > 0:38:53every known species of bird of paradise in the wild.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03We have come a long way from those first attempts
0:39:03 > 0:39:04to make drawings of the birds,
0:39:04 > 0:39:08which had to be based on no more than their shrivelled skins.
0:39:10 > 0:39:15Then came paintings, and finally film of them -
0:39:15 > 0:39:17eventually in colour.
0:39:19 > 0:39:21But, of course, in the mid-19th century,
0:39:21 > 0:39:24the only way to see a living bird
0:39:24 > 0:39:26was to travel 8,000 miles to New Guinea,
0:39:26 > 0:39:30because no-one had managed to bring one back to Europe alive.
0:39:34 > 0:39:38It was Alfred Russel Wallace who once again was the pioneer.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42In 1862, he succeeded in bringing back to England
0:39:42 > 0:39:44two living birds of paradise.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49The Zoological Society of London, the London Zoo, gave him £300.
0:39:50 > 0:39:55An astonishing figure - worth about £30,000 today.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58They were the first birds of paradise
0:39:58 > 0:40:01to be put on display here, and they were soon the talk of the town.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12In 1957, I set off for New Guinea, not only to film the birds,
0:40:12 > 0:40:16but, on behalf of the London Zoo, to try and bring some back alive.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26Although we managed to film the Count Raggi's bird,
0:40:26 > 0:40:28I wasn't able to catch any.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31But then I met a great naturalist and explorer
0:40:31 > 0:40:33who had settled in the Wahgi Valley,
0:40:33 > 0:40:37and had built aviaries in which he kept many of the species.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39His name was Fred Shaw Mayer.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44I found Fred with Bob, his hornbill.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47Fred has been collecting animals all his life,
0:40:47 > 0:40:50and in New Guinea alone, he's discovered five birds new to science
0:40:50 > 0:40:53including one bird of paradise.
0:40:53 > 0:40:58Fred gave me 13 birds of paradise of ten different species.
0:41:02 > 0:41:07I set out with them on the five-week journey back to London.
0:41:11 > 0:41:16And they ended up here in the old Bird House in the London Zoo.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35It was quite a difficult journey.
0:41:35 > 0:41:40We had to charter a little plane to take us to the island port of Rabaul
0:41:40 > 0:41:45off the eastern end of New Guinea, and there we found an old cargo ship
0:41:45 > 0:41:49that ploughed its way across the South China Sea to Hong Kong.
0:41:49 > 0:41:53Every day, of course, they had to be fed and cleaned,
0:41:53 > 0:41:57and we had plenty of fruit, but we discovered, as Wallace had,
0:41:57 > 0:42:01that what the birds really loved was cockroaches.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04And there were plenty of those to be found in the ship's kitchens.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10Then, from Hong Kong, we got a freight plane back to London.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17This big aviary here contains several of the birds of paradise
0:42:17 > 0:42:19which we brought back.
0:42:19 > 0:42:20That big one on the left
0:42:20 > 0:42:24is the Princess Stephanie's bird of paradise,
0:42:24 > 0:42:26one of the largest of the birds of paradise.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33And here's one of the smallest - the King bird of paradise,
0:42:33 > 0:42:35which is only a little larger than a robin.
0:42:35 > 0:42:37It's a wonderful little bird.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Birds of paradise haven't been seen here in London Zoo since 1973.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47But that's because it's now illegal
0:42:47 > 0:42:50to export the living birds from New Guinea.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53Nonetheless, there are just a very few places in the world
0:42:53 > 0:42:56where captive bred ones can be seen.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07I'm heading for one of them -
0:43:07 > 0:43:10an unlikely location in the Middle East.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18Thousand of miles away from the birds of paradise's natural home.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24A sanctuary has been built especially for them
0:43:24 > 0:43:28by a 21st-century royal collector,
0:43:28 > 0:43:31Sheikh Saoud Bin Mohammed Bin Ali Al-Thani.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52Here, in the middle of the desert of Qatar,
0:43:52 > 0:43:56a breeding centre has been created for rare birds
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and animals from all over the world.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05The Sheikh has built Al Wabra, a state-of-the-art breeding facility.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10There we are.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12What about that?
0:44:12 > 0:44:18Here at Al Wabra they are experts at caring for exotic birds,
0:44:18 > 0:44:21like these wonderful Hyacinth Macaws,
0:44:21 > 0:44:27the largest of all flying parrots and very, very beautiful.
0:44:34 > 0:44:38They also maintain the largest captive breeding group in the world
0:44:38 > 0:44:42of birds of paradise, with over 90 birds.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48They get the best possible care,
0:44:48 > 0:44:52with particular attention being paid to their nutrition.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01They consume 160 kilos of papaya a week.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07And their favourite insect food is mealworms.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14Twice a day, freshly made,
0:45:14 > 0:45:17the meals are delivered to each of the 90 birds individually.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25Curator Simon Mathews is in charge of the birds,
0:45:25 > 0:45:28and his aim is to understand them better,
0:45:28 > 0:45:31and to improve their breeding success still further.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35Because the eggs are so valuable,
0:45:35 > 0:45:39Simon removes them from the nests to incubate them artificially.
0:45:44 > 0:45:49This is a very special and precious chick.
0:45:49 > 0:45:51It's a young greater bird of paradise,
0:45:51 > 0:45:55and one of the very, very few that have been reared in captivity.
0:45:55 > 0:46:00And Simon is now giving it one of its regular feeds.
0:46:03 > 0:46:08He has to feed it every two hours, up to nine times a day
0:46:08 > 0:46:10for nearly 20 days.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14He whistles to attract its attention.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19It's kept in an incubator for three weeks.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26But the most difficult part of the breeding process in captivity
0:46:26 > 0:46:30is getting the birds to mate without injuring one another.
0:46:32 > 0:46:37In the wild, male plumed birds form leks, as in Wallace's picture,
0:46:37 > 0:46:41where many males gather to show off their plumes to visiting females.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48The female then chooses the male she admires the most...
0:46:51 > 0:46:55..mates with him, but then quickly leaves,
0:46:55 > 0:46:58avoiding the aggression that the males often show during mating.
0:47:00 > 0:47:02The difficulty for Simon
0:47:02 > 0:47:06is to ensure that the birds behave in the same way in captivity.
0:47:06 > 0:47:07To protect the females,
0:47:07 > 0:47:11he keeps the sexes separately and in alternate cages.
0:47:11 > 0:47:13He watches a female
0:47:13 > 0:47:17to see which side of her enclosure she spends most of her time,
0:47:17 > 0:47:20which suggests to him which of the two males she prefers.
0:47:23 > 0:47:28Once she appears to have made her choice, he opens a hatch.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32And then she flies in to briefly visit her chosen partner.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38Although courtship has been well documented in the wild,
0:47:38 > 0:47:41few people have ever witnessed the birds nesting.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49This is something I have never ever seen before.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53I have been so fascinated by the beauty, drama and glamour
0:47:53 > 0:47:57of the males with their splendid plumage and dances,
0:47:57 > 0:48:00I have never spent time looking for the nest of the female.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04And it's very unobtrusive, and very ordinary-looking.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07It looks as though it might even have been made by a blackbird.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10She makes it entirely by herself,
0:48:10 > 0:48:14and in it, she lays her one single egg,
0:48:14 > 0:48:16which she will rear entirely by herself.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21Most other species of birds work together as pairs,
0:48:21 > 0:48:25not only to make a nest, but to collect all the food needed
0:48:25 > 0:48:26to rear their young.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31And that difference is important in understanding
0:48:31 > 0:48:34why birds of paradise behave in the way they do.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40It's the fact that the female takes on the laborious business
0:48:40 > 0:48:43of caring for the young by herself that is the clue
0:48:43 > 0:48:47as to why the males have evolved such extravagant plumes.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54Over the years, many naturalists have puzzled
0:48:54 > 0:48:57over these fantastic plumes.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00Why should this one family of birds
0:49:00 > 0:49:03have taken feathered ornaments to such extreme lengths?
0:49:03 > 0:49:06And surely, having plumes like this
0:49:06 > 0:49:08must make it more difficult to fly,
0:49:08 > 0:49:12and therefore make a bird more vulnerable to predators?
0:49:12 > 0:49:15That certainly mystified Wallace.
0:49:15 > 0:49:17He described the males' displays
0:49:17 > 0:49:21as being nothing more than "playing" or "dancing".
0:49:23 > 0:49:26But their real purpose is much more important than that.
0:49:31 > 0:49:36This is a female King bird of paradise,
0:49:36 > 0:49:38and you can see she is very drab.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42Nothing like the glorious male.
0:49:45 > 0:49:51And it was Charles Darwin who understood the important part
0:49:51 > 0:49:55that she plays in the evolution of birds of paradise,
0:49:55 > 0:50:00because it's she who selects a male
0:50:00 > 0:50:03for the beauty of his plumage
0:50:03 > 0:50:07and that, over many, many generations,
0:50:07 > 0:50:10has led to the glories of the male.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16Darwin called the process in which a female chooses a mate
0:50:16 > 0:50:20based on his physical appearance "sexual selection".
0:50:20 > 0:50:23And the great variety of male ornaments has evolved
0:50:23 > 0:50:27simply because the females of a species have developed a preference
0:50:27 > 0:50:30for a particular kind of plume or colour.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35This trait, then, over many generations,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38becomes more and more exaggerated
0:50:38 > 0:50:42until eventually it can reach almost absurd extremes.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49The two magnificent long, white tail feathers
0:50:49 > 0:50:52of the ribbon-tailed bird of paradise
0:50:52 > 0:50:56evolved because the female ribbon-tails
0:50:56 > 0:50:59happen to like long, white tail feathers.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07They are four or five times the length of the bird's body,
0:51:07 > 0:51:11the longest tail feathers, in proportion to its body, of any bird.
0:51:14 > 0:51:19The remarkable thing is that all these plumes, pennants and capes
0:51:19 > 0:51:21have evolved from simple feathers.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25Of course, they no longer serve the original function of feathers,
0:51:25 > 0:51:29to keep a bird warm, or to help it fly.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33Indeed, if anything, they are an impediment to flight.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36Their only purpose is to impress the females.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48And it is not only birds that find such plumes irresistible.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06The people of New Guinea have always been well aware
0:52:06 > 0:52:10of the biological purpose of these extravagant ornaments.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13And when a tribesman puts on gorgeous plumes and feathers
0:52:13 > 0:52:15and displays them in dances,
0:52:15 > 0:52:18he is using them for the same purpose -
0:52:18 > 0:52:22to display his desirability so a lady might select him.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25DRUMMING
0:52:31 > 0:52:33To prepare the skins and plumes,
0:52:33 > 0:52:38New Guinea men still carefully remove the fleshy legs and wings
0:52:38 > 0:52:41to reduce the likelihood of insect attack,
0:52:41 > 0:52:43and to better display the plumes.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49So the reason it was believed the birds had no legs
0:52:49 > 0:52:53was because they had been removed before the skins left New Guinea.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09But why has this particular family of birds
0:53:09 > 0:53:13been able to take their ornaments and displays to such great extremes?
0:53:21 > 0:53:26The answer lies in the nature of New Guinea itself.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28The island is a relatively new one,
0:53:28 > 0:53:30having been pushed up from the bottom of the sea
0:53:30 > 0:53:35a mere ten million years ago - recently in geological time.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38So few land-living mammals have managed to colonise it,
0:53:38 > 0:53:41and most of those are harmless to birds.
0:53:42 > 0:53:47Echidnas, that live largely on worms,
0:53:47 > 0:53:49and a kind of kangaroo
0:53:49 > 0:53:53that bizarrely clambers around in trees, eating leaves.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03What's more, the lush, wet rainforests are rich
0:54:03 > 0:54:05all the year round in sugary fruits.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11And crucially, because the birds enjoy such a plentiful
0:54:11 > 0:54:13and energy-rich food supply,
0:54:13 > 0:54:17a female is able to raise her chick entirely by herself.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25And that frees the males to spend a lot of time and energy
0:54:25 > 0:54:29producing extravagant adornments and spectacular displays.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35So, fruit, that plays such a significant role
0:54:35 > 0:54:38in the Biblical view of paradise,
0:54:38 > 0:54:41has also created a paradise for these birds.
0:54:43 > 0:54:45Perhaps the name is apt after all.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52It's now known that the complexity of a bird-of-paradise display
0:54:52 > 0:54:54does not come entirely naturally,
0:54:54 > 0:54:59as Ed Scholes has recently observed in young male riflebirds.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03They start spending more and more time practising their displays.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07Riflebirds are using their wings, moving them back and forth,
0:55:07 > 0:55:09creating this interesting shape.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18Taking a turn at being the male doing the practices,
0:55:18 > 0:55:20and the other one is taking the role of the female.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22Then they alternate.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25And sometimes they're going on like this for hours,
0:55:25 > 0:55:27and getting very carried away.
0:55:28 > 0:55:33But when an adult male turns up, he sends them on their way.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39And it's not only riflebirds that have to learn to dance.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43Young male parotias start visiting display courts
0:55:43 > 0:55:45when they're three years old,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48before they develop the black plumage of the adult.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52And they use this time to practise their dance moves.
0:56:02 > 0:56:04It will be several more years
0:56:04 > 0:56:08before this one will be taken seriously by a female.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12It makes them look like a teenager, kind of strutting his stuff
0:56:12 > 0:56:15in front of the mirror when he's not quite fully developed yet.
0:56:27 > 0:56:28For five centuries,
0:56:28 > 0:56:32birds of paradise have fascinated explorers and naturalists,
0:56:32 > 0:56:34artists and collectors.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41So it was a very special moment for me to get so close when,
0:56:41 > 0:56:43because he had been hand-reared,
0:56:43 > 0:56:47this male bird-of-paradise actually began to court me.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56This surely is one of the great wonders of the natural world,
0:56:56 > 0:57:02just as Magellan's sailors said it was 500 years ago -
0:57:02 > 0:57:06even though, in fact, the bird does have legs.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12The displays of the birds of paradise
0:57:12 > 0:57:16have at last been recorded, both on canvas and on screen,
0:57:16 > 0:57:20in all their exquisite detail and complexity.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30Now, at last, we understand
0:57:30 > 0:57:33that it is the rich character of their island home
0:57:33 > 0:57:37that has allowed the birds to evolve in the ways that they have.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44And it's the female's preference
0:57:44 > 0:57:47for particular patterns, colours and displays
0:57:47 > 0:57:51that have led to the males' astounding finery,
0:57:51 > 0:57:52making them, surely,
0:57:52 > 0:57:57among the most stunning and glamorous birds on Earth.