Movies on birds are easy to come by these days. These little creatures have captivated us for centuries, so why not include them in movies?
In this list, there are movies for kids and adults, documentary lovers, and even some classics.
Hoot features live burrowing owls and music by Jimmy Buffett, who also played the role of Mr. Ryan, a science teacher in the movie.
Seek and ye shall find
This list could easily have been 20 films long. Sadly, many excellent movies are very difficult to find, but they do exist. While conducting research for this piece, it became evident that there is a dearth of publicity surrounding the many fantastic films that feature birds or the love of birds as a major and inspirational theme. It is perhaps a niche market ð.
The Falcons (1970), Brothers of the Wind (2015), Paulie (1998), and A Birder’s Guide to Everything (2013) are all worthy mentions. Of course, there are the commercially successful crowd-pleasers like Rio, Happy Feet, and Chicken Run, which are excellent films in their genre and also hold significant moral and bonding themes. These films provide an unmatched visual treat for a day in bed.
We sincerely hope that our selection of films has inspired you. Please let us know if there is a movie that you feel strongly about for birdwatching, and we will add it to our own list.
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About the author: Our writer and researcher for the Bird Buddy blog is Sim Wood. She is currently remodeling her Slovenian property with her spouse and making do without a plan. She is also proficient in 72 bird species’ calls and songs. Favorite bird: shoebill.
Birds On Film â Cinematic Flights Of Fancy
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Courtesy of AHPhotoswpg, Canva.
Since the beginning of cinema, birds have appeared on screen, and for good reason. Here, we examine some of the more well-known ones that you’ve probably all heard of and some that you should definitely see if you enjoy birds.
Not only are they always fascinating to watch, but following a bird in flight can produce some of the most amazing cinematography. The majority of the videos below all have superb camera work, but one is an animation with equally exquisite bird depictions.
We heartily recommend watching any of these movies on a large screen if you have the opportunity, if a nearby art gallery is showing them, or if you can get your hands on a projector and a large white wall, but small screens work just as well. Without further ado, let’s watch a few of our favorite bird movies.
We might as well finish this one now. Although this movie undoubtedly had a significant influence on the horror genre, it doesn’t exactly present our friends in a positive light, but that’s Hollywood for you. Consider what Jaws did for the sharkâs reputation.
Even though the movie uses a lot of special effects, the sparrows, ravens, and gulls that are used in most of the “attacking” scenes are real because they were captured and trained by well-known Hollywood animal trainer Ray Berwick. For certain “in your face” shots, raw meat would be applied to the camera lenses. Other birds would be attached to the actors’ collars and flutter wildly over their heads to get the desired shot.
Based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, The Birds tells a sorry tale of love and violence, self-absorption and complacency, pursuit and punishment, though most major elements are changed and the ending is not as bleak as du Maurierâs. Although not to everyone’s taste, a list of bird movies would be noticeably lacking without this one.
Once more, this movie is included on a lot of compilation lists, which is appropriate because it has won many people over the years. It was voted the 7th Greatest British Film of the 20th Century. It was released in 1969. Filmmaker Ken Loach, renowned for his realistic, working-class, “kitchen sink” dramas, skillfully adapts Barry Hines’ short story “A Kestrel for a Knave” for the big screen.
This movie has all the elements of hope and despair: friendship, trust, transcendence, freedom, life; poverty, low educational prospects, abusive relatives, needing to steal to survive, and death. Watching a young boy and his bird overcome the devastating effects of socioeconomics is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will leave you with a lump in your throat, even though the film is one of the most beautifully stark ones ever made.
Courtesy of Joanne Clifford, Wikimedia Commons
This 1996 Oscar-nominated film, which is based on a true story, is entertaining to watch as it follows sculptor and inventor Thomas Alden and his estranged daughter Amy as they navigate a heartbreaking reunion and an apparently impossible journey through the science of migration.
After covertly hatching some geese eggs she discovered in a abandoned nest, Amy is shocked to hear that the feisty goslings must have their wings clipped in order to be kept until they are adults, and she will not permit this.
As a result, when the time comes, the geese will feel compelled to migrate; otherwise, they will perish. However, even though Thomas tries his hardest to teach them their migration routes, they follow Amy everywhere because they have been attached to her since birth.
What follows is an aesthetically stunning, emotionally stirring story about peril, catastrophe, defying tyrannical rulers, and actually learning how to fly. One reviewer summed up the 1997 Broadcast Film Critics Association Critics Choice Award-winning picture as follows: “[The director] turns a potentially treacherous children’s film into an exhilarating 90s fable.” “.
Known in English as “Willy the Sparrow,” this 1989 animated Hungarian film was met with award-winning critical acclaim upon its release. More than ten years later, Scott Murphy directed the English version, which was released on DVD in 2004. This action-packed, masterfully scored story of friendship, peril, bargaining, and redemption has everything you need for a fun hour and a half, with or without the kids. It is purportedly a morality lesson about respecting living things.
Both versions have the same animation, with a few minor scenes removed from the later one. Though we thought this variation was kind of funny, the Hungarian song’s final lines in the original version talk about how time goes by in a depressing shade of grey, that miracles don’t happen, and that your dreams will never come true.
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The song was replaced in the English translation by another one that highlights how incredible flying is. It features spray-can fairy magic, cunning cats, elderly sparrows, careless parents, and a few inebriated rats. Whatâs not to love?.
Many people, including us, adore this movie despite its perceived commercial failure. A Big Year is a global birding competition that started in the 1930s in the USA, as was covered in a previous post.
This amusing story about rival men competing to see who can identify the greatest number of distinct bird species in a given year is a fun trip across North America.
Owen Wilson’s character is fiercely protective of his title, but he also faces challenges in his personal life and his third wife’s reasonable demands, telling him that his obsession destroyed his first two marriages.
During the competition, Steve Martin and Jack Black become friends and, despite their shared obsession with scoring points, find time to consider other aspects of life’s meaning.
It’s a gentle but affectionate examination of the nearly obsessive side of birdwatching, thankfully never devolving into caricatures, and it maintains an earthy balance and understanding of why some birders do what they do. We would all gladly jump at the chance to travel a continent solely to observe birds, as we all enjoy seeing new species and learning about even more fascinating birds.
This list was supposed to end at five, but we just had to include this heartbreaking 2019 movie. Like Kes, this is a coming-of-age story. Films frequently take advantage of the love and forgiveness that exist between kids and animals, but this one is thankfully devoid of sugar.
This film is a cerebral marvel, if only for its breathtaking cinematography, where the southern Australian coastline serves as both a backdrop and a main character. For a brief period, Geoffrey Rush plays an elderly man who sees visions that defy explanation, until he starts to remember his early years.
Living in a beachside shack under the rule of a materialistic father with a past, Mike takes in an orphaned pelican and names him Mr. Percival. The respect is already showing in the name choice. We implore you to seek this one out as it is woven with oceanic drama, Aboriginal lore, and some of the best pelican acting we’ve ever seen. Additionally, it would have been fascinating to witness how the animal handlers instructed Mr. Percival how to play catch.
List of Rio bird names:
- Blue and Yellow Macaw
- Golden Conure
- Green-Honeycreeper
- Keel-Billed Toucan
- Red-and-Green Macaw
- Red-Crested Cardinal
- Roseate Spoonbill
- Scarlet Ibis
- Scarlet Macaw
- Spix’s Macaw
- Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo
- Toco Toucan
Read Next: Full Guide To Rio Movie Birds
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