Earthflight

In “Earthflight”, amazing sights from five continents will be revealed in a whole new light as the five-part series joins the journeys of snow geese, cranes, falcons, albatross, eagles and other birds. Using cutting edge new filming techniques to show everything in exquisite detail, viewers have a uniquely privileged perspective flying 9,000 metres high over the sands of the Sahara or skimming metres over the Great Wall of China. The birds are shown up-close in flight and interacting with other animals down below, from barnacle geese encountering herds of migrating reindeer, to pelicans plunging into hundreds of nurse sharks. Spycams film right in the heart of the flock with microlights, hang-gliders and wirecams making up the aerial filming arsenal. Slow-motion techniques reveal extraordinary detail such as a swallow plucking a fly from the air while new satellite technology enables a seamless transition from views of entire continents to moving aerial images of the animals that live there. Sequences include flamingoes flying over the soda lakes of Africa and becoming prey for hunting baboons, flocks of waders landing in an invasion of horseshore crabs and Hummingbirds darting through the Grand Canyon. Earthflight is a British nature documentary that shows a flight from the view of the wings of birds across six continents, showing some of the world's greatest natural spectacles from a bird's-eye view. it was created by the BBC and the first episode, narrated by David Tennant, aired on BBC One on 29 December 2011. A two-hour subset of Earthflight was aired in October 2012 by the Discovery Channel in the US as Winged Planet. The entire first series aired on PBS, beginning in September 2013, under the title Earthflight, A Nature Special Presentation.