Birds go to the poles, and survive extremely low temperatures. Birds go underwater. They have been seen diving to 1000 feet. Birds have colonised the air in a fantastic way. They even fly over the Himalayas.
Swifts stay on the wing nearly all their lives, making nests of bits of fluff they catch in the air.
They even mate in the air. There is no question that birds are the most widespread and successful kind of organism in the world. But he admits has always been greatly moved by the beauty of one species, the birds of paradise. They are some of the great wildlife spectacles, among the most beautiful and fantastically decorative birds in the world. I have been besotted with them since I was a schoolboy, when I read the travels of the great 19th Century British naturalists, the first Europeans to see these things.