Birds of a feather flocking together: Awesome migration pictures captured from 1,000ft up

By Daily Mail Reporter


A flock of Stilt Sandpipers and American Avocet arrive in the wetlands of the Colorado River Delta in the spring


These amazing pictures, taken from a dilapidated World War Two aeroplane, show a true bird's-eye-view of enormous flocks migrating hundreds of miles across the hemispheres.

The incredible project is the work of German photographer Florian Schulz who has travelled across the globe to document some of nature's greatest events.

Using a two-seater Piper Cub aircraft, Florian, 35, was able to soar to over 1000ft thousand feet up and capture birds on the wing in Alaska, Canada and Mexico. The plane may be ancient but it is nimble and it allowed dedicated Florian to land almost anywhere. He slept in a bivouac and his pilot slept in the plane.


He even dived underwater braving -1.5 Celsius temperatures to capture Thick Billed Murre's swimming, before snapping them from above in his plane.

Other species captured on film in his trip included sandpipers in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Eight million of the birds pass through the area over a week as they migrate from Mexico to the Arctic Tundra.

He also pictured frigate birds in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, and American Avocets wading in the afternoon sun on the Colorada River Delta, Mexico. after going to Mexico and seeing how some birds raise their young in freezing temperatures.

Florian said: 'It's a good example to show the interconnectedness to the natural world. They move with the seasons depending on what they need to do like mating, eating and birthing.

'It's fascinating how the same birds adapt from the cold of the high Arctic to the heat of the deserts in the south.'

Flocks of hundreds of thousands of Sandpipers take off from the mudflats of the Copper River Delta in Prince William Sound to fly north during their annual spring migration

Several hundred Kitiwakes soar over the frozen ocean of the Chuckchi Sea in Chukchi, Alaska

Snow geese migrate to their nesting grounds in Arctic Alaska in spring

Dedicated Florian braved freezing temperatures to capture this group of Thick-Billed Murres diving along the ice edge of Pond Inlet on the northern tip of Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada


Florian uses a two-seater WWII Piper Cub aeroplane to capture the birds in flight


source:dailymail