BBC: Secret Life of Birds

'A bird's life in Wales must be wonderful.

'A life made in heaven.

'Anything but.

'Birds have to work from dawn to dusk to find food and water.

'If they don't, they die.

'They have to battle with the elements too.

'Survival, especially during winter, is always difficult.

'And during the spring, they're busy raising families.

'They also have to put up with us

'and find a way of surviving in our artificial landscape.'

In this series, I'm going to be finding out what a bird's life is really like in Wales.

I'm going to be discovering the vast array of species we have here.

And I'm going to be probing into their secret lives.

'The uplands above Llanberis,

'and a ring ouzel is collecting food for its chicks,

'which are hidden somewhere on the mountains.

'It's related to a blackbird and looks like one,

'except for its prominent white bib, its distinguishing feature.

'It has flown all the way from the Atlas mountains of Morocco

'to spend the summer in this part of Gwynedd.

'It can probably carry more in its beak than I could with my hands.

'And of course, as they have no arms, beaks are very important for birds.

'They come in all shapes and sizes.

'And they're used in different ways.

'A beak is a very useful tool that birds have that other animals don't.

'They also have many other fantastic features that are unique to them

'and can do extraordinary things, such as fly.

'They're very special living beings.

'In this programme, I'm finding out how their different forms allow them

'to do what they need to do to survive in the Welsh landscape.

'It's mid winter on the Nevern Estuary in Pembrokeshire

'and an egret and a spoonbill are feeding on the mud.

'The spoonbill is the one on the right.

'Although they're both feeding in the same habitat,

'their bills have completely different shapes,

'which allows them to feed in different ways.'

It's fascinating with these two birds

because they're very similar but yet they're very different.

They're both quite big white birds with long legs and a long beak.

But you watch them feed.

The little egret has got more of a dagger-like bill.

He'll walk along and he'll dart out looking for a fish here and there.

The spoonbill, on the other hand, has got this huge spoon-like bill

and he just opens it.

He works his way through the mud and it's hyper sensitive.

So when he feels invertebrates or fish or whatever is in that mud,

all of a sudden it will shut.

Then he eats, and then he puts it back in again.

So even though they're both in exactly the same spot,

they're feeding in very different ways.

'It may be that the reason why the egret is staying so close to the spoonbill

'is because the spoonbill through its actions is disturbing the mud

'and releasing food into the water.

'This is precisely what the egret does when it feeds alone.

'It uses its feet to loosen the mud.

'And this releases shrimps and other invertebrates into the puddles,

'which makes them easier to catch.

'The Severn Estuary and the Newport Levels

'near the mouth of the River Usk.

'Wetlands and estuaries are fantastic places

'to see the range of techniques wading birds use

'to catch their food, and the tremendous range of beak sizes.

'These are the wet lagoons of Goldcliff on the Newport Levels.

'It's first light and one of Wales' rarest breeding birds is feeding.

'It's an avocet and it must have the most ornate beak of any Welsh bird.

'It uses it to sift the water for small insects and worms.

'Dyfi Estuary near Machynlleth.

'It's high tide during a very wet winter period

'and the land has flooded.

'These wet fields are at Ynyshir.

'Because of their position next to the Dyfi Estuary,

'they too attract a great number of waders.'

High tide is the best time to come to Ynyshir

because once the rising sea water has covered the whole estuary,

the birds come over the sea wall in their thousands.

They'll settle in some of these wetter fields

and shallow lagoons here.

'Wet lagoons are excellent feeding sites,

'especially during the winter when the fields are waterlogged.

'One of the prettiest birds you find here is the lapwing.

'It has a small stubby beak and large eyes with excellent vision

'to help it catch small grubs on or near the surface.

'A redshank can go slightly deeper to find invertebrates with its long beak.

'And a dunlin can go just as deep.

'But the ultimate wading bill belongs to a curlew.

'It can go deeper in the mud

'than any other estuarine bird to find its food.

'Curlews migrate from Europe to Wales in their thousands during winter

'and they join thousands more of different species on our estuaries.

'The variety of beak shapes allows the different species

'to exploit different parts of the habitat,

'yet still live on the same estuary.

'Woodland and garden birds also have a variety of beak designs

'that allow them to exploit the same habitat.

'This woodland is in the Conwy Valley.

'One of the most common birds you'll find here is chaffinch.

'It has a short, strong beak that allows it to eat seeds.

'A blue tit's small, pointed beak is ideal for picking off small insects

'and in a conifer woodland, for extracting small seeds from pine cones.

'In the spring, migrants from Africa,

'such as the willow warbler, arrive in our woodlands.

'They too have thin, pointed beaks for eating insects.

'Also during the spring,

'bullfinches use their stubby beak to eat fresh shoots.

'In the autumn, a goldfinch's strong beak is ideal

'to pick off the seed heads of dying plants.

'But the most specialist seed eater of all is the crossbill.

'They literally have bills that cross over each other

'and they're shaped that way so that they can prize open pine cones.

'Birds do what seem to be odd things sometimes

'but they always have a purpose.

'One of the best places to watch bird behaviour is in a town.

'Here, they're so used to people they perform in full close-up view.

'This gull is on the seafront overlooking Colwyn Bay.'

Look at this herring gull over here.

It's quite comical really.

She's running on the spot and looks like an athlete warming up.

But what she's actually doing is mimicking rain falling on the earth

and the earthworms then in the soil think,

it's raining, it's going to flood, I've got to get out my burrow.

So they come up.

If you watch, in a minute, she'll pick up the earthworms and feed.

It's funny. It looks really silly. But it's very effective.

'The shape of a bird's foot changes considerably

'depending on what the bird does and where it lives.

'A heron and moorhen walk on wet ground,

'so they need big feet to stop them sinking.

'Geese and ducks spend a lot of their time in water,

'so they need webbed feet to help them swim.

'Webbed feet are also handy as breaks when landing.

'Treecreepers and woodpeckers spend a lot of their time climbing trees.

'So they have strong thumbs to give them added support.

'A blackbird uses its feet to perch, mainly.

'The house sparrow and wren have the tiniest of feet,

'which grab the smallest perch.

'Birds of prey need to use theirs to catch prey.

'They also use their beak to tear flesh.

'Both feet and beaks are useful tools for birds.

'The herring gull's beak has another important feature.

'It can be used to signal.

'The red dot against the yellow bill stands out,

'and chicks can see it clearly.

'This gives them a target to peck at

'and stimulates the adult to regurgitate food.

'Puffin bills are also used as signals.

'They're the most brightly-coloured beaks you'll find in Wales.

'Puffins nest in burrows

'and this colony is on Skomer Island off the Pembrokeshire coast.

'The beaks are big because they use them to catch fish.

'But again, they've been adapted to double-up as signal devices.

'Outside the breeding season the beaks are not brightly-coloured

'but during courtship they are stunning

'and are used as attractive tools by the males and females.

'We have many colourful birds in Wales.

'Amongst woodpeckers, the green woodpecker is the most handsome.

'Even one of our commonest crows is striking.

'Though not a particularly popular bird,