Rating: 
Summary: How did they film it???
Review: This 3 dvd set, comprising ten one hour programs on various aspects about birds (hunting, singing, mating, parenting, etc.) is utterly fascinating and informative. However, the most amazing thing about it is the incredible photography. A documentary should be made explaining how they filmed it! Here we see views looking up from the bottom of a lake as a kingfisher dives into the water and snags a fish - amazing! Birds in flight are filmed as thought you are flying along side them. There are also some rare species which were captured on film for the first time. A truly stunning documentary and very educational. I had only one minor complaint - there was very little information about common birds that you might find in your garden here in the U.S., but that is a minor detail that can be overlooked.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing, Informative, Mesmerizing... wow.
Review: This is 580 minutes of spectacular footage and riveting narrative. Sir David Attenborough is the supreme nature narrator and the BBC filmmakers are simply brilliant. I couldn't pull myself away from the screen. To see, up close and in perfect imagery, both the usual and the unusual life of birds, to see the vast range of species, habitats and habits... priceless. Bird behaviour is fascinating, even more fascinating than you can imagine prior to viewing this series.What an amazing world we live in and what a superb job these folks have done to bring us so close to the avian part of God's creation. Don't miss it! You'll want to watch them over and over.
Rating:
Summary: Utterly outstanding!
Review: This is the BBC at its best. Further, it's Attenborough at his best too. The quality of the production shines through. It's luscious, rich, vibrant and makes this one of the best TV series of is type ever made. This magnificent series makes you gasp in wonder at the sheer splendour and variety of birds on our planet. The photography and editing are first-rate. Attenborough's style is, as always, enthusiastic, knowledgable and supremely confident. This, like many of the great BBC natural world series is the sort of programming that makes the rest of the world envy British TV viewers.
Rating:
Summary: Five stars for content, two stars for video transfer quality
Review: This series is probably my favorite nature series ever made. The stunning close-up photography of so many exotic (and not so exotic) birds is fun and fascinating to watch as they go about their behaviors. Sir David's narration is, as in all his programs, charming and unintrusive. I reviewed the VHS release of this series a couple of years ago and was so happy when they annouced its release on DVD because of the usual improvements in transfer and audio quality. Whoever did the job should be ashamed of themselves because in some places the video is so grainy (check episode six) that it literally looks like some compressed MPEG or AVI file downloaded from the internet. In other areas it is less noticeable, but still no better than the VHS tapes. The audio sounds OK, but again it's not noticeably better. Other than the permanence of having it on DVD compared to VHS, I was very disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Ten Fabulous Hours!
Review: When my husband purchased this three-DVD series, I asked him, "Are you really SURE you are THAT interested in birds to watch ten hours of programs about them ?" But from the first hour, I was hooked. Every single episode relates so many different, interesting facts. Some things I had wondered about for many years, and they were explained. For example, why is it that the birds start singing the very second the first ray of sun comes over the horizon, and they go on singing very noisily for about 30 minutes, at which point they quiet down again? (VERY annoying if you're trying to sleep.) Well, the answer is that each bird knows all of its neighbors, and calls to each neighbor periodically throughout the day to be sure it is still there and well, and to be sure that no foreign bird has invaded its neighbors' territories. Upon awaking each morning, each bird calls to it's own neighbors, particularly those of its own species, mainly to be sure that its neighbors are still alive and well. (Most birds are blind at night.) This exchange takes about half an hour, and is the birds' equivalent of our morning news. That's why it stops after half an hour, when each bird has finished talking to each of its neighbors. This is only one of the fascinating facts I remembered from this delightful series. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is the slightest bit interested in nature of any kind.
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