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Birds of the Macaronesian Islands - Canary Islands and Madeira Produced by Cursorius Photo and Video Library
I hope the title of this video doesn't put off all the birdwatchers (including me!) who don't know where the Macaronesian Islands are. The subtitle is much more informative: this is a video covering the birds of the Canaries and Madeira and it's terrific. Leo Boon is a Dutch photographer who has recently chosen to specialise in video and has gathered together over 2 hours of top-quality material in this tape. The detail in the commentary wouldn't be suitable for the thousands of 'tourists with binoculars' who visit these islands, but for every birdwatcher who wants to go there to see the endemics, seabirds and subspecies this tape is excellent. Having tried myself to film birds on these islands, I'm not surprised that Leo has lots of superb footage of species such as Canary Islands Chat, Blue Chaffinch, Canary and Berthelot's Pipit, but I am deeply envious of his shots of the more difficult species such as Bolle's Pigeon, (White-tailed) Laurel Pigeon, Bulwer's Petrel and Little Shearwater. These are species which, as far as I know, haven't been filmed (and published) before. The same is also true of the sequence of Fea's Petrel which Leo has 'bought in' from Paul Hackett and there are some unique sound recordings in here too, including the 'squeeze' call of Madeiran Firecrest (learn it before you go there) and the wonderfully evocative nocturnal calls of Zino's Petrel. Leo has really made an effort to capture all the different subspecies on the islands including several forms of Chaffinch, Blue Tit and Robin. The narration is thankfully not in Dutch but is done impressively by Magnus Robb, a Scottish birder based in Holland. It includes lots of detail on how to identify the different species and subspecies and, together with the footage, slow-motion sequences, still photos and freeze-frames, makes this video extremely instructive. Given the difficulty of filming seabirds, I particularly liked the chance to see the flight actions of birds such as Bulwer's Petrel and Little Shearwater and how they appear at a distance and in different lighting conditions. Marvellous stuff. The video begins with an introduction to the islands and their birds by Tony Clarke, a birder who is resident on Tenerife and well-known to many birdwatchers who have visited the island. This 13-minute section is impressively clear and concise, though rather uninspiring. It succeeds in giving an idea of the landscapes on several of the islands and highlights the special birds found on each. The rest of the tape is a systematic species-by-species description of most of the birds which breed or occur regularly with special attention given to the different subspecies. In this section you'll find all the highlights I've already mentioned plus some awesome sequences of birds such as Houbara Bustard and Cream-coloured Courser which really had me drooling. So, whether your main interest is in the seabirds or the endemics or the various subspecies on the Canaries or Madeira, you'll be delighted with what you find on this video. If the price of �23.99 sounds a little expensive, remember the tape lasts 2 hours and 24 minutes and has loads of valuable material you simply can't find anywhere else. Click here for more product reviews. The information in this article was believed correct at the time of writing. BirdGuides Ltd accepts no responsibility for errors, or for any consequences of acting on information in the article. The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily shared by BirdGuides Ltd. |
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