The World of Birds in Stunning

And wave power creates towering fortresses like these cliffs in the Arctic, home to tens of thousands of breeding seabirds. The faces of the cliffs are accessible only from the air and have plenty of nooks and crannies for those that can get there. But to feed, seabirds must still master the ocean world beyond. A puffin. He's a fisherman and a father. He has a mate for life. Puffins share the burden of raising their weak old chick, their puffling, who needs five square meals a day. The parents alternate fishing trips. It's dad's turn. When fish stocks are low, puffins must fly as much as 50 kilometres out to sea to reach the good fishing grounds. Once there, they plunge into another world. Good fishing spots are hard to come by and they have company. Like the puffin, their wings are short and good for diving. Puffins can hold their breath for over a minute and dive as deep as 40 metres. A catch, but it's a long way home. After an exhausting round trip of almost 100 kilometres, this puffin's nearly made it. Parrots on this coast. Arctic skewers. Old returning parents are being robbed. The skewer's long, raked back wings make them faster and more manoeuvrable. Puffins must choose their moment wisely. A near miss. A last desperate burst of speed. And it's made it. Safely home after a three-hour round trip, where his patient partner is waiting. Today, their puffling will eat. But where fish numbers are in decline, many puffins now find it hard to get enough food for their chicks. In the changing seas of today, it can be even harder to be a successful puffin parent. A finch. A female. Its ancestors, doubtless, were blown here by storms many centuries ago. Like most finches, they feed on seeds, nectar and insects. But there's little food of any kind on wolf. And since they aren't strong enough flyers to leave the island, they've had to find food from a very unusual source. They depend on another of the island's inhabitants. Nazca boobies. Every day, these seabirds commute between the island and their fishing grounds out in the open ocean. Each time a pair meet, they renew their bond and then catch up with the neighbours. Now is the time to hop into action. Blood. They are vampire finches. These little birds have become one of the world's newest species. She cuts the quill of a large flight feather and the blood flows. The sight of it attracts the attention of others. Blood is very nutritious. Worth fighting for. So, with this never-ending supply of food, the vampire finches can flourish on an island where otherwise they could not survive. Why the boobies don't object? Nobody knows. Perhaps the finches' behaviour started when they helped the boobies to remove parasites from their plumage. Maybe the boobies think that the little vampires are still providing a service. Who can tell? Here, there are other challenges. St Andrew's Bay on South Georgia is packed with half a million king penguins. In spring, the chicks are left for days whilst their parents are away collecting food for them. There is a simple arrangement. The chicks must stay exactly where their parents left them to be sure of being found again. But this chick has decided to look around. There is a lot to be investigated. But it must not stray too far from its meeting place. This parent has returned with food in its crop. But its chick isn't where it left it. It's hard to stay put when there's so much to play with. Elephant seals are here too. Very mysterious. Finding it in the crowd of youngsters is not going to be easy. They must recognise each other by their calls. But to hear these in such a noisy colony, they must be within 15 metres of each other. Reunited. Losing its fear of humans has enabled one animal to spread into cities everywhere and in huge numbers. Pigeons are by far the most successful urban bird. Here in Albi in the south of France, the pigeons come to the river to bathe. They need to preen their flight feathers, clean off the city dust and cool themselves down. A predator that has taken advantage of the very thing that has led to the pigeon's success. Their lack of fear. As the pigeons bathe, oil from their plumage flows downstream and is detected. A monstrous Wells catfish. Introduced here just 40 years ago, they have proliferated. Virtually exterminated the local fish stocks and they've now developed a taste for pigeon. Their eyesight is poor, so they use their barbels to sense the movements of their victims. This is a radical new hunting strategy for what is normally a bottom-dwelling fish. After a thousand years of living in this city, pigeons are now having to learn to avoid a fish. Here on the coast of Peru, there are so many seabirds fishing in the offshore waters that the cliffs are covered in droppings over a metre thick. Humboldt penguins regard the soft guano as a good material in which to dig their nest holes. But it's a messy business. It's the breeding season and more hopeful nesters arrive, spotless from swimming in the sea. Time for the residents to get cleaned up and catch some fish for themselves and their chicks. To get to the sea, they cross the remains of an old nesting ground. Only 100 metres to go. But the beach is already crowded with sea lions. They too have come ashore to raise their young and they don't like being disturbed. To get through such a minefield needs a bold and courageous leader. A brave start. A dead end. Now he's in trouble. This is going to need a bit of crowd surfing. But now all the sea lions aroused. Getting through them will be tricky. A cleansing bathe in the ocean. Well worth the effort. Mother is after eggs. But getting them is not going to be easy. The geese will risk their lives to protect their eggs. If they lose them, they can't produce another clutch this season. She gives the first eggs to her young pups and then heads back for more. Some of the eggs she stashes away. They will be food to help her through the coming winter. In just three weeks, she will steal over 800 eggs from the geese. But eating a big egg is not easy if one is rather small. It's a technique the pups haven't quite yet cracked. Mum shows how it's done. The great American deserts cover over two and a half million square kilometres. Here, roasted by the sun and blasted by the wind, the rocks disintegrate and mountains, particle by particle, are reduced to sand. These pillars are all that remain of a plateau where dinosaurs once roamed. Few animals can now survive here. In summer, as in all deserts, the enemy is heat and it returns every day. At seven in the morning, the temperature is already 25 degrees Celsius. The clock is ticking for one unusual descendant of the dinosaurs. A roadrunner found only in the deserts of North America. Built for a life on the ground. He can run at over 30 kilometres an hour. But the prey he seeks are one step ahead. The roadrunner's challenge is picking the right target. A gila monster. Too big. By mid-morning, it will be 40 degrees Celsius. Even the smallest lizards will soon head for cover. A centipede. Slim pickings for the morning's work. Hunting should get easier and prey will stay out longer once the summer's peak begins to fade. A thousand plants growing on one single tree. Throughout the forest, this story is repeated endless times. As a consequence, jungles are home to more species of plants than anywhere else on Earth. And they, in turn, support a wealth of animals. In Ecuador, the competition is at its most intense. Here, there are a hundred species of hummingbirds alone. All fighting for nectar. Each flower only has a small amount at any one time and so it's first come, first served. One hummingbird has gone to great lengths to avoid conflict with other species. Swordbills are the only bird with a beak longer than their body. And some flowers are too elongated for the other 99 species of hummingbirds here to feed from them. A swordbill's extraordinary beak, however, enables it to reach the places that others can't. The top of this flower, where the sweet nectar is produced. It has found a solution that means it doesn't have to join the fight. And as each long flower blooms, it gives the swordbill a fresh supply of food all to itself. But having a beak longer than your body does have its drawbacks. For a start, it's tricky to keep it clean. Harder still, how do you preen your body feathers? Unlike the other hummers, swordbills can't reach their feathers with their beak. The only option, a good old scratch. It's a little unrefined, but a small price to pay for an exclusive food supply. The return of the sun coincides with the appearance of the newest members of the colony. In a matter of days, there are thousands of hungry mouths, all demanding food. Their fathers haven't eaten anything for nearly four months. Yet they have kept back a vital reserve, a kind of thick penguin milk, just for this moment. But it's only enough to keep the chick alive for a few days. The females must return soon with food. For some, it's already too late. The first of the females are returning. Fat and well-fed, more arrive, all with food for the chicks. And not a moment too soon for the waiting fathers. A mother's first sight of her young chick. With their bond reaffirmed, the whole family celebrates. Cutting off the food supply and imprisoning the fledglings. Only adults have the strength to break their bonds and make good their escape. Even as the lake begins to thaw, shackles of salt and ice continue to weigh the chicks down. And with every day deeper into winter, cold and lack of food take a toll. But a breath of seasonal wind offers hope. Gaining strength, it provides just enough lift for a last chance at liberty. Trading their rich nursery feeding grounds for the southern lowlands. They'll find refuge from the grip of winter. Their cover blown, escape seems impossible. But these particular fish have a unique ability. They're flying fish. With an extra thrust from their tails, the flying fish get airborne once more. Good wind, they can glide for hundreds of meters. But this is just what the frigate birds have been waiting for. When frigates join the hunt, the flying fish are literally caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. If the flying fish get too much lift, they become easy prey for the frigates. If they dive to evade attack from above, they could fall into the mouths of the dorado. During the dry season, over half a million terns crowd onto this remote atoll in the Indian Ocean. Their chicks are still in their dark juvenile plumage. They vary in age. Whilst the more advanced chicks take to the air, others aren't quite ready yet. Those just starting to learn to fly use the shallow lagoon that occupies the centre of the atoll as their training ground. It's difficult for some of them to stay aloft for long. Usually, they are solitary hunters. But about 50 of them have come here from neighbouring reefs, attracted by this abundance of potential prey. The fledglings stay out of the water if they can. They even drink on the wing. If the Tuvalu are to catch one now, they have to up their game. So there is a fish here that amazingly has a brain capable of calculating the airspeed, altitude and trajectory of a bird. The time comes when every fledgling has to take to the air and collect food for itself. Their parents lead them to the training grounds. If they are to survive, they must learn quickly. The Sika deer have started creeping into the lush cultivated fields. It's a whole new world. These fields are brimming with specially sown grass, intended for cattle. But this herd always seems to be one step ahead. Helping themselves to the best grass before it can even be cut. Every year, deer can munch their way through over 30 million pounds worth of crops. But some farmers have developed a live and let live attitude. The deer are reaping the benefits of Hokkaido's human landscape. In a place like this, it pays to be adaptable. In the warmth of early summer, the red-crowned cranes have moved into the farmland waterways. And they have a new family member. They traditionally nest in marshes, but most have been drained. So the cranes are raising their chick in an irrigation channel. All through the summer, the chick will be entirely dependent on its parents for food. The channel is teeming with insects, fish and frogs. But the parents can barely keep up with their gangly offspring's appetite. The family won't be able to move on until the chick can fly. In the meantime, they can't escape from surprise visitors. The seeker deer have managed to wander right into the path of a pair of cranes with a weak old chick. Mum and dad work together to shepherd the chick to safety. And then a quick flash of the dagger-like beak to make sure the deer keep their distance. The parents' diligence has paid off. Their priority now is to feed their chick while times are good. For the last few weeks, the mother and father have taken it in turn to feed their offspring. But its growing appetite will soon force both parents to go away fishing at the same time. Now it's time to encourage the month-old chicks to stand on their own two feet. Sometimes it takes a well-timed kick. Now both parents can head off to sea to go fishing. For the first time, the chicks will have to face the elements without a parent to protect them. Other adults certainly won't look after them. So, lone chicks gather together for comfort. As the temperature drops to minus 25, the chicks instinctively create their own mini-huddle. Just as their fathers do. This is no time for a youngster to be alone. If they're lucky, some chicks may still have the protection of a parent taking a break from fishing. For the majority, the huddle is their only shelter.