This video still was taken from our expedition video, The Hells Canyon Expedition shot on location in Idaho. You can view the video for FREE online at our website www.thenatureexplorers.com Purchase DVDs, Audio CDs of Nature Sounds, Books of video stills, and more.
I'm Michael C. Clark Naturalist, Explorer, and Cinematographer. My compañero Loganapithicus and I travel the world in search of unique ecosystems to explore and document cinéma-vérité style. Our expeditions usually take place in an area of five square miles or less within a duration of 7-21 days and we focus on the entire ecosystem plants, animals, geology, weather, and more. We do not specifically seek out, bait, or wait for species, we film what we
encounter as we explore the ecosystem on foot.
The purpose of our expeditions is to help in homo sapien's ceaseless quest for knowledge by documenting the ecosystems as they are forever changing with plant Earth as they have for billions of years. Our ecosystem videos can be viewed FREE by anyone and used for nonprofit educational instruction and testing purposes as well as scientific study of the ecosystems. Therefore we have left out narations and used music in the background when no natural sound is available, ultimately leaving the videos for self interpretation, individual discovery, and for professors to explain or show as examples in a classroom setting.
We are unable to film every species in the selected ecosystems, as it is impossible to get everything in such a short time frame, one could spend an entire lifetime studying an ecosystem of planet Earth and still never see it all. No plant or animal species were harmed during our expeditions, all species are filmed in their natural habitat and are not coerced or paid for any performances. This is Mother Nature's movie if you have script questions please direct them towards her.
View our website www.thenatureexplorers.com
Birds (class Aves) are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic (warm-blooded), egg-laying, vertebrate animals. With around 10,000 living species, they are the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. All present species belong to the subclass Neornithes, and inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from the 5 cm (2 in) Bee Hummingbird to the 2.75 m (9 ft) Ostrich. The fossil record indicates that birds emerged within theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic period, around 160 million years (Ma) ago. Paleontologists regard birds as the only clade of dinosaurs to have survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 65.5 Ma (million years) ago.
Modern birds are characterised by feathers, a beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a lightweight but strong skeleton. All living species of birds have wings—the now extinct flightless moa of New Zealand being the only exception. Wings are evolved forelimbs, and most bird species can fly. Flightless birds include ratites, penguins, and a number of diverse endemic island species. Birds also have unique digestive and respiratory systems that are highly adapted for flight. Some birds, especially corvids and parrots, are among the most intelligent animal species; a number of bird species have been observed manufacturing and using tools, and many social species exhibit cultural transmission of knowledge across generations.
Many species undertake long distance annual migrations, and many more perform shorter irregular movements. Birds are social; they communicate using visual signals and through calls and songs, and participate in social behaviours, including cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking, and mobbing of predators. The vast majority of bird species are socially monogamous, usually for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years, but rarely for life. Other species have polygynous ("many females") or, rarely, polyandrous ("many males") breeding systems. Eggs are usually laid in a nest and incubated by the parents. Most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching.
Many species are of economic importance, mostly as sources of food acquired through hunting or farming. Some species, particularly songbirds and parrots, are popular as pets. Other uses include the harvesting of guano (droppings) for use as a fertiliser. Birds figure prominently in all aspects of human culture from religion to poetry to popular music. About 120–130 species have become extinct as a result of human activity since the 17th century, and hundreds more before then. Currently about 1,200 species of birds are threatened with extinction by human activities, though efforts are underway to protect them.