Every year the flamingos along the Mediterranean shores set off in search of a suitable breeding place.
This beautiful and delicate bird has fascinated civilizations for centuries and thus the myth of the phoenix was born. “The bird of the sun”, as it was referred to in ancient Egypt, has existed for ten million years and is still here. Today, our phoenixes are found in the south of Spain, in the Atlantic marshes of Doñana. They spend the winter in this mild and welcoming habitat with its rich feeding grounds. However, when spring comes, the sun lets them know that it is time to start looking for suitable places to build their nests.
In this documentary, we follow the flamingos on their flight in search of a suitable breeding place, which they finally find in the lagoon of Fuente de Piedra. With its salty water over thick, black mud, Western Europe’s largest lagoon is just the right sanctuary for their annual reproduction cycle. Few places like this still remain because they are vulnerable ecosystems. We accompany the bird colony while they raise their offspring. Many dangers threaten this exhausting challenge but in the end, the young birds leave behind their grey childhood plumage and learn to fly. The long nomadic flight of the Phoenix begins again.
The Roof of Africa is home to the last of the world’s Ethiopian Wolves. They inhabit a unique place, which rises 4.000 meters into the sky. Here, sun and rain clouds battle for supremacy, icy winds twist their way through the leathery leaves of lobelia, and when the night brings frost, there is n...
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) lists the Cat Ba langur is one of the most critically endangered primates in the world. In the past, poaching was a great threat to their survival: from over 2,500 individuals in the 1960s, the population declined to mere 50 individuals today. Low reproductive ...
The white stork is the only large European bird that has attached itself to human beings. These elegant-looking birds build their nests on roofs and chimneys and are held by people to be lucky and feature in fables where they are said to bring babies. People generally like storks and the village ...