Earth Flight—Breathtaking Photographs from a Bird's-Eye View of the World

A guided tour of the world through the eyes of birds.

For his award-winning In-Flight Movie, filmmaker John Downer devised a 61/2-ounce camera that could be carried by a trained buzzard. Eagle followed, for which Downer used a smaller video camera with an onboard transmitter to film a raptor's flight over the Alps. Supernatural continued the pioneering work, using a flock of greylag geese. Flock leader Buff was trained to carry a harness holding an even tinier camera, the "Goosecam," which captured amazing views from inside the flock.

EarthFlight, Downer's latest film project, is a six-part series. It uses spycams, microlights, hang-gliders, miniature helicopters and wirecams to give viewers a privileged perspective of birds in flight. Whether soaring 10,000 feet high over the Sahara or skimming yards over the Great Wall of China, EarthFlight the film allows viewers to take part in the miracle of flight.

Every page shows us what the birds see--winding shorelines, bustling cities, sunsets and storms, mountains, canyons and roiling seas--and the animals they encounter: pelicans diving for fish, a tiger drinking from a stream, migrating reindeer, dolphins playing, and in the desolation of the desert, a nomadic family. The book closes with a "Making of" chapter.

EarthFlight truly is a bird's eye view, a pioneering work of genius and a memorable journey around the world like no other.

John Downer is an independent wildlife film producer who started his career with the BBC Natural History Unit. He won a Grammy for the innovative time-layering techniques in the Peter Gabriel video Digging in the Dirt and has made many groundbreaking commercials.

John Downer is an independent wildlife film producer who started his career with the BBC Natural History Unit. He won a Grammy for the innovative time-layering techniques in the Peter Gabriel video Digging in the Dirt and has made many groundbreaking commercials.