An Interview With Series Producer Huw Cordey
A male Calliope hummingbird with throat feathers that resemble a flower when spread.
Barrie Britton
What animal or animal behavior do you think will surprise viewers the most?
Hard to pick out one thing in particular — as I hope they’ll be surprised by quite a lot. But, I think perhaps the migration of the spinner sharks along the Florida coastline. This blew me away — not just in terms of numbers (thousands of sharks make this journey each year) but in the proximity of the migration to the beach, where lots of people are swimming.
Which animal from the North America series are you most impressed by and why?
Again, it's difficult to pick just one out, but it’s hard not to be impressed with the little Calliope hummingbird, which, every year, flies 2,500 miles from Mexico to Montana/Wyoming.
At three inches long, it’s one of the smallest migrating birds on the planet. When it arrives, it has to defend its patch of flowers from other hummingbirds, which it does in high-speed dog fights. Then, it needs to attract a mate and it does this by spreading out its brightly colored throat feathers. The throat feathers, or gorget, look like a flower and the females appear to try and drink nectar from it. Very impressive stuff when shot in super slow motion!
What is one North American location or landscape that everyone must see?
One location... that’s just too hard! I can think of loads. However, if I beat it down to a few I would say:
Badlands National Park in South Dakota. An other worldly place of eroded sandstone and table lands of prairies. There isn’t much of the Great Plains left intact, but here you can see a glimpse of the past along with its wildlife &mdah; prairie dogs, bison, bobcats, coyotes, golden eagles, etc. Brilliant place!
I also love the deserts of Utah; the Grand Canyon is hard to beat; and the Sonoran Desert with its stands of saguaro cactus is beautiful. Oh and Labrador... what a wild and unspoilt place!
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