[POV Video] So This Is What It Feels Like To Be An Eagle Preying On Flamingos

The BBC has produced some of my favorite shows of all time. Their newest program called Earthflight captures amazing HD video from the skies as they put you literally on the wings of wild birds. I really can't imagine how they got these shots of eagles stalking unsuspecting flamingos but it's definitely not filmed on a Gopro Hero. According to the BBC, this is how they filmed this amazing footage:

"To create its bird’s-eye view of the world Earthflight uses a host of extraordinary filming techniques including filming "imprinted" flocks from microlites, wild flocks filmed from model gliders and silent drones, full-sized helicopter with stabilised mounts and cameras on the backs of trained birds. Slow-motion techniques also reveal extraordinary detail such as swallows plucking feathers from the air."

Patrick Hall's picture

Patrick Hall is a founder of Fstoppers.com and a photographer based out of Charleston, South Carolina.

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4 Comments

I would say that this was shot using several methods and using several camera from several angles:
1.)  Camera on some sort of model plane...
2.)  Camera shot on a trained eagle just to get several overhead arial views of the flamingos...
3.)  Live shots (wide & telephoto) of the actual wild eagle on a real hunt...

Notice they never show the "eagle cam" as they come in on their prey for the kill, the actual kill shots are all shot telephoto from a distance.

yeah I think you nailed it....the POV video never is shown very long and not during the kill sequence.  If anything it's a brilliant use of mixed footage and editing as it give you just enough to make you feel like you are going in for the hunt yet showing other wider and telephoto shots too.  Either way, it's pretty awesome!

It could be this camera !!
http://www.horus-video.com/produits/cam%C3%A9ras/cam%C3%A9ra-xshd-mk2

You can see picture of the camera on the eagle here: http://jdp.co.uk/programmes/earthflight

If you look closely during the eagle flight shots where the camera is supposed to be on the eagle, there's a pretty large shadow in the water like someone is holding an eagle in a hangglider and filming so it looks like the eagle is flying it...