Roger Moroney: David solves the mystery of flight

David Attenborough's Conquest of the Skies, TV1 at 7.30pm on Sunday: When David Attenborough and his devoted crew get to work on something you just know it is going to be very special. And in this series he touches upon creatures dear to my heart. The birdies.

I could never quite take onboard the scientific stance that the closest things to dinosaurs inhabiting the planet today are the birds.

Not the lizards or tuatara or newts or whatever.

The birds, which live in the trees and deposit things on the car if you park it under that tree.

No scales or horns.

Just feathers ... although some do have very clawed feet and aggressive- looking beaks.

It's basically because birds share some of the same features as dinosaurs ... just what those features happen to be, I don't know. I could make some enquiries but I do like a mystery and don't want to spoil this one just yet.

My time of revelation regarding birds and dinosaurs, will I suspect arrive soon and the man to inform me of such a bewildering link will be the finest teller of natural history tales walking the lands.

David Attenborough. The chap is quite simply a gem.

He'll take any subject and any animals or insects and keep you genuinely fascinated. His latest effort is, like his previous outings, brilliantly filmed and laid out with nature's special effects which are often as startling as what comes out of Weta.

David takes to the skies.

Well, no, he doesn't start trying to defy gravity, but he does take us on a voyage of flight through millions and millions of years.

And he will quietly tell us quite remarkable things like the fact there are an estimated 100 billion different varieties of creatures flying through the air above the earth today.

Everything from night beetles and butterflies to bats and winged reptiles ... and the birdies of course.

In a recent interview Attenborough summed it up nicely.

"We human beings are latecomers to the skies and although we might think that we're pretty good at it, the natural world, with the help of several million years of evolution, has produced a dazzling range of aeronauts whose talents are far beyond ours."

Conquest of the Skies takes flight on TV1 this Sunday and it starts at ... the start. Which is a very good place.

The first creatures to fly were insects, and that humble thing called a dragonfly has hardly changed in millions of years for the simple reason that it doesn't have to. It is as good as it can get for the life it leads. Same for butterflies ... same for pretty well every flying insect out there.

Evolution?

Naaah, too time consuming.

He will introduce some quite stunning insects of the landscape today - many of which you will never have seen and will likely ever only see on a screen... a television screen.

Then, in episode two, he'll step up to the arrival of the flying vertebrates.

The creatures with backbones and skeletons who did follow the road of evolution and developed the hardware required to take flight.

Flying frogs and lizards ... and then of course along came the bigger flyers.

The pterosaurs - and through superb use of computer-generated imaging you will watch them in awe.

Then David will steer down the path of birds and bats.I wonder if he'll tell me how it is sparrows and starlings hop yet mynah birds actually walk.Oh, the mysteries of the natural world.

This is a series which effectively wraps up 300 million years of natural flight in about three hours in total, and that's impressive.

As is the determination and resolve of David Attenborough. He turns 90 next year and the thought of retirement has never entered his mind.

There's just too much to discover and share.

ON THE BOX

* Pets: Wild At Heart, TV1 at 8.40 tonight:

A very apt title, given animals don't talk and are basically expressionless so you have no idea what they are about to do. Cats and dogs are, indeed, wild at heart. They are descended from creatures which roamed without human care and attention and fought and foraged to feed themselves. And sometimes those old deeply inbuilt habits emerge. Our cat is an idiot so this two-part documentary about pet behaviour could have some educational benefit ... if I can get him to watch it.

* Michael Buble's Christmas in Hollywood, Prime at 7.30pm Thursday:

Aha, Christmas is edging ever closer. The concerts and musical outings have begun. And the films are starting to pop up more regularly also. On Sunday The Santa Clause appears on TV2 for about the 20th time and Prime's starting to crank up more festive food shows.

As I write this I can hear the distant strains of Jose Feliciano's Feliz Navidad
and last night I dreamt a reindeer was stuck in the toilet bowl. So anyway, Mikey the crooner boy is here to share the Christmas spirit.

* Border Security, TV1 at 7pm Sunday:

I have been pulled aside on two occasions by customs chaps. Once was for a routine sniffer dog check and the other was when they found six bottles of ale in my carry-on bag. Boutique Aussie ales I'd bought on Philip Island and was bringing home to share ... but taking them aboard in hand luggage was a no-no. "Enjoy them, lads," was all I could muster as they took them away. But I've no complaints because they do a crucial and valuable job and I simply didn't read the rules. Like some of the mad specimens they have to deal with in this enlightening series.