Online Video Guide

In the Arabian desert, crab plovers endure temperatures above 40?C. An egg would normally fry if left on such a boiling hot surface, so unlike any other wading bird in the world, the crab plover digs tunnels deep in the sand and lays its eggs away from the scorching sun. Lesser flamingos tolerate crippling heat as they stand in corrosive African soda lakes. At another extreme, camerawoman Justine Evans filmed David Attenborough among a 10,000-strong nesting colony of oil birds in a pitch-black cave in Venezuela. The birds navigate in the dark using sonar and share the cave with vampire bats, rats, and crabs. Many birds have been brought to extinction by human activities, but some happily take advantage of people, living in urban areas. Carrion crows have learned to crack walnuts on concrete roads in Japan. If that doesn?t work the crows drop the nuts on a pedestrian crossing so that the cars can crush them.