National Geographic shows Gainesville audience a bird’s eye view

Colorful, exotic birds soared through rainforest canopies and snacked on fruit but not in Gainesville.

Photos of the birds were shown in the “National Geogrpahic Live: Birds of Paradise” discussion Wednesday evening at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

Photographer and researcher Tim Laman and ornithologist, or bird expert, Ed Scholes spoke about their experiences documenting the forest canopy birds of New Guinea.

Brandon Nappy, the Phillips Center’s director of marketing , said 727 tickets sold for the presentation.

“National Geographic has been doing [live events] for a while,” Nappy said. “They’ve been on our radar to bring here to Gainesville.”

The presentors discussed 13 years worth of studying forest canopy birds, including more than 20 expeditions to New Guinea, interacting with 39 bird species and photographing 39,568 pictures throughout their trips.

Laman and Scholes set out to not only document information about the species and its characteristics but to literally see things from the bird’s eye view, they said.

During expeditions, Laman set up cameras from different angles, such as a female bird’s view during a male’s mating dance. This allowed them to see a color on the top of the Parotia, a type of bird of paradise, that had not previously been seen.

“This is something that would have gone completely unnoticed had we not had the idea to see these behaviors from this important perspective,” Scholes said.

Laman and Scholes, while not conservation biologists, consider themselves conservationists because they believe in the protection of natural habitats and the prevention of deforestation.

The duo considers the birds of paradise, species within a classification of birds native to Oceania, are a symbol of the rainforest. Laman and Scholes also want to inspire people to include environmental consciousness in their work, they said.

Eric Wang, a 21-year-old UF biology junior, said he focuses on natural science in his studies and attended the event because he enjoys the discipline. He was impressed and inspired by Laman’s photography.

“The lengths that people go to get these shots is incredible,” Wang said.

Tiffany Rivera, a 25-year-old UF wildlife ecology and conservation alumna, attended the event because she’s interested in nature and birds. Rivera studied abroad in Australia to identify bird species and saw one of the birds of paradise, she said.

“Seeing some of the extreme genetic variation in the phenotypes of the birds of paradise presented last night was incredible and really reminds us just how amazing birds can be,” Rivera said.

Contact April Rubin at arubin@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @AprilMRubin.