Mates for Life is a film series motivated by the natural phenomenon of species that mate for life. This first film of the series focuses on the Whooping Crane, an endangered species with a population of a little over 800. This intimate interpretation inspired by avian movement will engage both supporters of conservation and the arts.

Counting Cranes:  Imagine trying to count hundreds of thousands of birds in a matter of seconds. This is what Andy Caven does every spring… from a plane. In March, almost a million sandhill cranes pass through Nebraska’s Platte River Valley. For the past 20 years, the Crane Trust has conducted aerial surveys of sandhill crane roosts to get an accurate count of the number of birds that pass through. Andy and his team take us behind the scenes to show us how this is done, what they have learned, and why it’s important.

Iridescent: When it comes to the discovery and documentation of birds, Tim Laman is one of the best in the world. As he entered the final curation stages of his forthcoming book, Bird Planet, fellow bird lover and National Geographic photographer Keith Ladzinski reached out with an opportunity to go on safari in one of the world’s birding hotspots, Brazil’s Pantanal region. It had been on Tim’s bucket list for years but he had yet to visit, so he jumped at the chance to photograph some of South America’s best birds.