For birds around the world,
a great journey is about to begin...
A journey so vast,
it's impossible for us to truly grasp.
Whether searching for a mate or food,
whether flying to old nests
or finding new homes...
spring is here,
so it's time to take to the skies.
Groups of snow geese take individual routes
all over North America,
from the Gulf of Mexico
to breeding grounds in the Arctic.
Some travel in families,
the parents leading their young.
They're guided by natural landmarks
like the Mississippi River,
one giant winding road pointing the way home.
Other groups are taking a more western route.
For some younger ones, it's their first time.
Once or twice is enough to create
a detailed mental map that lasts a lifetime.
Their journeys pass hundreds of landmarks.
They can cross an entire continent
in just a few days.
As signposts go,
Niagara Falls will do just fine.
It says to the snow geese, you're almost there.
Across the ocean, dawn breaks over Kenya,
home to an almost mythical creature.
The old world name for these birds
translates to "phoenix,"
the bird reborn from fire.
The flamingo's day begins as every day does,
strolling and feeding in the shallows.
But now their lake has run out of food,
so the flamingos must find a new one.
Below, a mural of abstract shapes and patterns
as though drawn on the canvas of Earth
by some giant unseen hand.
From the flamingo's perspective,
a collage of crops becomes a work of art.
The quest continues.
But with the afternoon comes a promising sight.
This new lake holds an abundance of food...
A cause for contentment.
Flamingos come into this world with white feathers.
The shrimp they eat transform them into a fiery pink.
The more they eat,
the healthier and pinker they become.
They even choose a partner
based on the depth of their color,
So in the eyes of a flamingo,
to be more pink is to be more beautiful.
Further south in Kenya,
storks set off on their journey to Europe.
They don't just fly.
They glide.
But to glide, they need height.
Like a surfer riding a wave, they catch thermals,
columns of hot air,
to help them on their epic voyage.
Guided by the stars and sun,
storks follow the same paths
across the sky every year.
We call them flyways.
As the rhythms of the planet ebb and flow
beneath the storks,
other animals instinctively know
when to set off on their own journeys.
Nature's immense clockwork.
A multitude of moving parts, all interconnected.
A world in constant flux.
To travel is to feel the pull of a destination,
a distant notion, drawing us forever onward.
Whatever nest or burrow,
the time always comes
to travel home.
For centuries, a stork has been a sign of a new baby.
Maybe that's because each year,
they fly north to their nests,
where they have chicks of their own.
In Roman times, it was considered lucky
if a stork nested on your roof.
The residents of this German village
still build rooftop platforms...
An excellent deal for both parties.
For the birds, a place to nest,
and for the humans,
a dose of good luck.
They make perfectly discreet neighbors.
Storks have no squawk or chirp.
They live in silence.
Their cousins, cranes,
more than make up for the stork's silence.
Young cranes migrate across Europe
to breeding grounds...
Where they hope to find a mate for life.
From here, the human love affair
with geometry becomes clear.
Our square nests in such neat rows.
Pattern and regularity,
a reflection of the order we seem to love.
Even our flowers are marshaled into straight lines.
The crane's great search for companionship
will soon be fulfilled,
but for now, there's more sky to cover.
The starlings are traveling south across Europe
in search of food and a new home.
Their spellbinding movements
paint a fresco on the sky above ancient Rome.
Their tiny brains are joined in
a mysterious form of communication.
Each starling is connected to the surrounding seven
through a kind of body language.
If one moves,
the others sense it,
sending unspoken signals across the entire flock.
Millions become one,
a masterpiece in a state of motion.
So, for the starlings,
Rome seems like a good place to stay.
The birds have arrived home.
The snow geese have had their chicks.
The cranes have found their mates.
And as it's always been since long, long ago...
Their journeys are complete.
And for now,
it's time to rest.