Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, (relatively complex) songs are distinguished by function from (relatively simple) calls.

Definition

The distinction between songs and calls is based upon complexity, length, and context. Songs are longer and more complex and are associated with courtship and mating, while calls tend to serve such functions as alarms or keeping members of a flock in contact. Other authorities such as Howell and Webb (1995) make the distinction based on function, so that short vocalizations such as those of pigeons and even non-vocal sounds such as the drumming of woodpeckers and the "winnowing" of snipes' wings in display flight are considered songs. Still others require song to have syllabic diversity and temporal regularity akin to the repetitive and transformative patterns which define music. It is generally agreed upon in birding and ornithology which sounds are songs and which are calls, and a good field guide will differentiate between the two.

Bird song is best developed in the order Passeriformes. Most song is emitted by male rather than female birds. Song is usually delivered from prominent perches although some species may sing when flying. Some groups are nearly voiceless, producing only percussive and rhythmic sounds, such as the storks, which clatter their bills. In some manakins (Pipridae), the males have evolved several mechanisms for mechanical sound production, including mechanisms for stridulation not unlike those found in some insects.

The production of sounds by mechanical means as opposed to the use of the syrinx has been termed variously ''instrumental music'' by Charles Darwin, ''mechanical sounds'' and more recently ''sonation''. The term ''sonate'' has been defined as the act of producing non-vocal sounds that are intentionally modulated communicative signals, produced using non-syringeal structures such as the bill, wings, tail, feet and body feathers.

Anatomy

The avian vocal organ is called the syrinx; it is a bony structure at the bottom of the trachea (unlike the larynx at the top of the mammalian trachea). The syrinx and sometimes a surrounding air sac resonate to sound waves that are made by membranes past which the bird forces air. The bird controls the pitch by changing the tension on the membranes and controls both pitch and volume by changing the force of exhalation. It can control the two sides of the trachea independently, which is how some species can produce two notes at once.

Function

Scientists hypothesize that bird song has evolved through sexual selection, and experiments suggest that the quality of bird song may be a good indicator of fitness. Experiments also suggest that parasites and diseases may directly affect song characteristics such as song rate, which thereby act as reliable indicators of health. The song repertoire also appears to indicate fitness in some species. The ability of male birds to hold and advertise territories using song also demonstrates their fitness.

Communication through bird calls can be between individuals of the same species or even across species. Birds communicate alarm through vocalizations and movements that are specific to the threat, and bird alarms can be understood by other animal species, including other birds, in order to identify and protect against the specific threat. Mobbing calls are used to recruit individuals in an area where an owl or other predator may be present. These calls are characterized by wide frequency spectra, sharp onset and termination, and repetitiveness which are common across species and are believed to be helpful to other potential "mobbers" by being easy to locate. The alarm calls of most species, on the other hand, are characteristically high-pitched making the caller difficult to locate.

Individual birds may be sensitive enough to identify each other through their calls. Many birds that nest in colonies can locate their chicks using their calls. Calls are sometimes distinctive enough for individual identification even by human researchers in ecological studies.

Many birds engage in duet calls. In some cases the duets are so perfectly timed as to appear almost as one call. This kind of calling is termed antiphonal duetting. Such duetting is noted in a wide range of families including quails, bushshrikes, babblers such as the scimitar babblers, some owls and parrots. In territorial songbirds, birds are more likely to countersing when they have been aroused by simulated intrusion into their territory. This implies a role in intraspecies aggressive competition.

Some birds are excellent vocal mimics. In some tropical species, mimics such as the drongos may have a role in the formation of mixed-species foraging flocks. Vocal mimicry can include conspecifics, other species or even man-made sounds. Many hypotheses have been made on the functions of vocal mimicry including suggestions that they may be involved in sexual selection by acting as an indicator of fitness, help brood parasites, protect against predation but strong support is lacking for any function. Many birds, and especially those that nest in cavities, are known to produce a snake like hissing sound that may help deter predators at close range.

Some cave-dwelling species, including Oilbird and Swiftlets (''Collocalia'' and ''Aerodramus'' spp.), use audible sound (with the majority of sonic location occurring between 2 and 5 kHz) to echolocate in the darkness of caves. The only bird known to make use of infrasound (at about 20 Hz) is the western capercaillie.

The hearing range of birds is from below 50 Hz (infrasound) to above 20 kHz (ultrasound) with maximum sensitivity between 1 and 5 kHz. The range of frequencies at which birds call in an environment varies with the quality of habitat and the ambient sounds. It has been suggested that narrow bandwidths, low frequencies, low-frequency modulations, and long elements and inter-element intervals should be found in habitats with complex vegetation structures (which would absorb and muffle sounds) while high frequencies, broad bandwidth, high-frequency modulations (trills), and short elements and inter-elements may be expected in habitats with herbaceous cover. It has been hypothesized that the available frequency range is partitioned and birds call so that overlap between different species in frequency and time is reduced. This idea has been termed the "acoustic niche". Birds sing louder and at a higher pitch in urban areas, where there is ambient low-frequency noise.

Bird Language

The language of the birds has long been a topic for anecdote and speculation. That calls have meanings that are interpreted by their listeners has been well demonstrated. Domestic chickens have distinctive alarm calls for aerial and ground predators, and they respond to these alarm calls appropriately. However a language has, in addition to words, structures and rules. Studies to demonstrate the existence of language have been difficult due to the range of possible interpretations. Research on parrots by Irene Pepperberg is claimed to demonstrate the innate ability for grammatical structures, including the existence of concepts such as nouns, adjectives and verbs. Studies on starling vocalizations have also suggested that they may have recursive structures.

The term "bird language" may also more informally refer to patterns in bird vocalizations that communicate information to other birds or other animals in general. Wilderness Awareness School groups bird vocalizations into five different classes, sometimes called "voices," each of which communicates different information. Song has been discussed at length in this article. Companion calling is a short vocalization made between mates, parent and young, or members of a flock to maintain contact when out of visual range. Juvenile begging is a strident, loud vocalization often made by young to a parent when begging for food. Intraspecific aggression can consist of loud, alarmed-sounding vocalizations or of energetic song, and may be heard when members of the same species behave aggressively toward each other. Alarm may be heard when birds are startled, frightened, or terrified for their lives, and can take many forms. Mobbing is one example of alarm, while a high-pitched alarm call is another.

Of the five voices of the birds, four of them communicate the message that the bird feels safe. Birds that engage in song, companion calling, juvenile begging, and intraspecific aggression all display what Jon Young calls "baseline" behavior, or a relaxed state free of the fear of predation. Alarm communicates the presence of a predator, or an influence that the bird may see as predatory such as a human hiker. Alarms have distinct sounds and shapes, each of which is specific to the source of the disturbance. For example, ravens mobbing a hawk or owl in a tree will clump around the predator in a loose ball, calling and diving. If the ravens rise off the tree and fly higher, the predator was a hawk and has flown up to escape, as is typical of hawks. If the ravens drop out of the tree and fly low and away, the predator was an owl and has dropped low off its perch to escape, as is typical of owls.

Neurophysiology

The main brain areas involved in bird song are:

Anterior forebrain pathway (vocal learning): composed of the lateral part of the magnocellular nucleus of anterior neostriatum (LMAN), which is a homologue to mammalian basal ganglia); Area X, which is part of the basal ganglia; and the Dorso-Lateral division of the Medial thalamus (DLM).

Song production pathway: composed of the HVC (sometimes, inaccurately, called the Hyperstriatum Ventralis pars Caudalis); robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA); and the tracheosyringeal part of the hypoglossal nucleus (nXIIts).

Both pathways show sexual dimorphism, with the male producing song most of the time. It has been noted that injecting testosterone in non-singing female birds can induce growth of the HVC and thus production of song.

Birdsong production is generally thought to start at the nucleus uvaeformis of the thalamus with signals emanating along a pathway that terminates at the syrinx. The pathway from the thalamus leads to the interfacial nucleus of the nidopallium to the HVC, and then to RA, the dorso-lateral division of the medial thalamus and to the tracheosyringeal nerve.

The gene FOXP2, defects of which affect both speech and comprehension of language in humans, becomes more active in the striatal region of songbirds during the time of song learning.

Recent research in birdsong learning has focused on the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA), which sends a dopamine input to the para-olfactory lobe and Area X, LMAN and the ventrolateral medulla. Other researchers have explored the possibility that HVc is responsible for syllable production, while the robust nucleus of the arcopallium, the primary song output nucleus, may be responsible for syllable sequencing and production of notes within a syllable.

Learning

The songs of different species of birds vary, and are more or less characteristic of the species. In modern-day biology, bird song is typically analysed using acoustic spectroscopy. Species vary greatly in the complexity of their songs and in the number of distinct kinds of song they sing (up to 3000 in the Brown Thrasher); in some species, individuals vary in the same way. In a few species such as starlings and mockingbirds, songs imbed arbitrary elements learned in the individual's lifetime, a form of mimicry (though maybe better called "appropriation" [Ehrlich ''et al.''], as the bird does not pass for another species). As early as 1773 it was established that birds learnt calls and cross-fostering experiments were able to force a Linnet ''Acanthis cannabina'' to learn the song of a skylark ''Alauda arvensis''. In many species it appears that although the basic song is the same for all members of the species, young birds learn some details of their songs from their fathers, and these variations build up over generations to form dialects.

Birds learn songs early in life with sub-vocalizations that develop into renditions of adult songs. Zebra Finches, the most popular species for birdsong research, develop a version of a familiar adult's song after 20 or more days from hatch. By around 35 days, the chick will have learned the adult song. The early song is "plastic" or variable and it takes the young bird two or three months to perfect the "crystallized" song (which is less variable) of sexually mature birds.

thumb|right|300px|Timeline for song learning in different species. Diagram adapted from Brainard & Doupe, 2002..

Research indicates birds' acquisition of song is a form of motor learning that involves regions of the basal ganglia. Models of bird-song motor learning are sometimes used as models for how humans learn speech. In some species such as zebra finches, learning of song is limited to the first year; they are termed 'age-limited' or 'close-ended' learners. Other species such as the canaries can develop new songs even as sexually mature adults; these are termed 'open-ended' learners.

Researchers have hypothesized that learned songs allow the development of more complex songs through cultural interaction, thus allowing intraspecies dialects that help birds stay with their own kind within a species, and it allows birds to adapt their songs to different acoustic environments.

Auditory feedback in bird song learning

Early experiments by Thorpe in 1954 showed the importance of a bird being able to hear a tutor's song. When birds are raised in isolation, away from the influence of conspecific males, they still sing. While the song they produce resembles the song of a wild bird, it lacks the complexity and sounds distinctly different. The importance of the bird being able to hear himself sing in the sensorimotor period was later discovered by Konishi. Birds deafened before the song crystallization period went on to produce very different songs from the wild type. These findings led scientists to believe there could be a specific part of the brain dedicated to this specific type of learning. The main focus in the search for the neuronal aspect of bird song learning was guided by the song template hypothesis. This hypothesis is the idea that when a bird is young he memorizes the song of his tutor. Later, during the development phase as an adult, he matches his own trial vocalizations using auditory feedback to an acoustic template in the brain. Based on this information, he adjusts his song if needed. To find this "song template," experimenters lesioned certain parts of the brain and observed the effects.

Lesioning the song production pathway (RA, xXII or HVc) in the brain creates serious effects on song production in all birds. Lesions parts of the anterior forebrain pathway, or vocal learning pathway, DLM and area X, result in deficits in learning in all birds. Lesioning LMAN, located in the anterior forebrain pathway in young birds disrupts song production. Lesioning LMAN on an adult bird shows no effect. Lesioning LMAN on an adult canary (an "open-ended learner" species, which can learn songs later in life) shows a progressive deterioration of song.

These results show that the area known as LMAN is the only brain area in the pathway that shows some plasticity and further studies have shown that this area of the brain responds best to the bird's own song. This neuroplasticity is vital for a bird being able to learn a song. The ability to make small adjustments based on auditory feedback is needed for the complexity of these beautiful songs. Just like any musician, birds need to practice and be able to evaluate what their song sounds like and what it's supposed to sound like in order to get it right.

To complete the picture on bird song learning, experimenters needed to discover the true plasticity of the brain. While deafening and creating auditory isolation were good techniques for discovering basic characteristics about the brain, a reversible procedure was needed to investigate further. The solution was found in disruption of the auditory feedback, or what a bird hears. A computer is able to capture the song of a singing bird and play back portions of its song, or selectively play back a certain syllable while the bird is singing. The computer is basically playing the age old trick of repeating whatever the bird sings, the "stop copying me" game. This creates such a disruption that an adult bird will start to decrystallize its song, which includes a loss of spectral and temporal rigidity characteristic of adult song. It reverts back to the song it started singing with, before any learning took place. Furthermore, when the feedback was stopped, the birds slowly recovered their original song, something that was unheard of. These results show that there is a fair amount of plasticity retained in the brain, even for close-ended learners. This new found plasticity in adult birds and the results on the plasticity of LMAN (shown above) combine into a model for bird song learning (diagram coming soon).

Mirror neurons and vocal learning

A mirror neuron is a neuron that discharges both when an individual performs an action, and when he perceives that same action being performed by another. These neurons were first discovered in macaque monkeys, but recent research suggests that mirror neuron systems may be present in other animals including humans. Mirror neurons have the following characteristics: This has implications for birdsong learning– many birds rely on auditory feedback to acquire and maintain their songs. Mirror neurons may be mediating this comparison of what the bird hears and what he produces.

thumb|300px|Song selectivity in HVCx neurons: neuron activity in response to calls heard (green) and calls produced (red). a. Neurons fire when the primary song type is either heard or sung. b,c. Neurons do not fire in response to the other song type, regardless of whether it is heard or sung. Sketch based on figure from Prather et al. (2008) In search of these auditory-motor neurons, Jonathan Prather and other researchers at Duke University recorded the activity of single neurons in the HVCs of swamp sparrows. They discovered that the neurons that project from the HVC to Area X (HVC_X neurons) are highly responsive when the bird is hearing a playback of his own song. These neurons also fire in similar patterns when the bird is singing that same song. Swamp sparrows employ 3-5 different song types, and the neural activity differs depending on which song is heard or sung. The HVC_X neurons only fire in response to the presentation (or singing) of one of the songs, the primary song type. They are also temporally selective, firing at a precise phase in the song syllable.

Because the timing of the neural response is identical regardless of whether the bird was listening or singing, how can we be sure that the bird isn’t just hearing himself? Prather et al. found that during the short period of time before and after the bird sings, his HVC_X neurons become insensitive to auditory input. In other words, the bird becomes "deaf" to his own song. This suggests that these neurons are producing a corollary discharge, which would allow for direct comparison of motor output and auditory input. This may be the mechanism underlying learning via auditory feedback.

Overall, the HVC_X auditory-motor neurons in swamp sparrows are very similar to the visual-motor mirror neurons discovered in primates. Like mirror neurons, the HVC_X neurons:

Are located in a premotor brain area

Exhibit both sensory and motor properties

Are action-specific – a response is only triggered by the ‘primary song type’

The function of the mirror neuron system is still unclear. Some scientists speculate that mirror neurons may play a role in understanding the actions of others, imitation, theory of mind and language acquisition, though there is currently insufficient neurophysiological evidence in support of these theories.

Identification and systematics

The specificity of bird calls has been used extensively for species identification. The calls of birds have been described using words or nonsense syllables, or line diagrams. Common terms in English include words such as ''quack'', ''chirp'' and ''chirrup''. These are subject to imagination and vary greatly; a well-known example is the White-throated Sparrow's song, given in Canada as ''O sweet Canada Canada Canada'' and in New England as ''Old Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody'' (also ''Where are you Frederick Frederick Frederick?''). In addition to nonsense words, grammatically correct phrases have been constructed as likenesses of the vocalizations of birds. For example, the Barred Owl produces a motif which some bird guides describe as ''Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?'' with the emphasis placed on ''you''. The use of spectrograms to visualize bird song was first introduced by W. H. Thorpe. These visual representations are also called sonograms or sonagrams. Some recent field guides for birds use sonograms to document the calls and songs of birds. The sonogram is objective, unlike descriptive phrases, but proper interpretation requires experience. Sonograms can also be roughly converted back into sound.

Bird song is an integral part of bird courtship and is a pre-zygotic isolation mechanism involved in the process of speciation. Many allopatric sub-species show differences in calls. These differences are sometimes minute, often detectable only in the sonograms. Song differences in addition to other taxonomic attributes have been used in the identification of new species. The use of calls has led to proposals for splitting of species complexes such as those of the ''Mirafra'' Bushlarks.

Bird song and music

Some musicologists believe that birdsong has had a large influence on the development of music. Although the extent of this influence is impossible to gauge, it is sometimes easy to see some of the specific ways composers have integrated birdsong with music.

There seem to be three general ways musicians or composers can be affected by birdsong: they can be influenced or inspired (consciously or unconsciously) by birdsong, they can include intentional imitations of bird song in a composition, or they can incorporate recordings of birds into their works.

In his book 'Why Birds Sing' David Rothernberg claims that birds vocalize traditional scales used in human music, such as the pentatonic scale (e.g. Hermit Thrush) and diatonic scale (e.g. Wood Thrush), providing evidence that birdsong not only sounds like music, but is music in the human sense. This claim has been refuted by Sotorrio ('Tone Spectra') who has shown that birds are not selecting 'scale tones' from a miriad of tonal possibilities, but are 'filtering out' and reinforcing the available set of overtones from the fundamental tones of their vocal chords. This requires "far less musical intelligence and deliberate appropriation" and in this regard, he suggests birdsong has something in common with Mongolian throat-singing and jaw-harp music. Sotorrio also claims that musicians like Rothernberg are deceived by "a perculiar form of Pareidolia" whereby complex tonal information is reduced to human scale concepts due to a "fixation on music as it is written rather than as it sounds". Rothernberg's claims were expored in the BBC documentary 'Why Birds Sing'.

Compositions that imitate or use birdsong

One early example of a composition that imitates birdsong is Janequin's "Le Chant Des Oiseaux", written in the 16th century.

Other composers who have quoted birds or have used birdsong as a compositional springboard include Vivaldi (''Spring'' from the ''Four Seasons'')), Biber (''Sonata Representativa''), Beethoven (''Sixth Symphony''), Wagner (''Siegfried'') and the jazz musicians Paul Winter (''Flyway'') and Jeff Silverbush (''Grandma Mickey'').

The twentieth-century French composer Olivier Messiaen composed with birdsong extensively. His Catalogue d'Oiseaux is a seven-book set of solo piano pieces based upon birdsong. His orchestral piece ''Réveil des Oiseaux'' is composed almost entirely of birdsong. Many of his other compositions, including ''Quatuor pour la fin du temps'', similarly integrate birdsong.

The Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, with his ''The Pines of Rome'' (1923–1924), may have been the first to compose a piece of music that calls for pre-recorded birdsong. A few years later, Respighi wrote ''Gli Uccelli'' ("The birds"), based on Baroque pieces imitating birds.

The Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara in 1972 wrote an orchestral piece of music called ''Cantus Arcticus'' (Opus 61, dubbed ''Concerto for Birds and Orchestra'') making extensive use of pre-recorded birdsongs from Arctic regions, such as migrating swans.

The American jazz musician Eric Dolphy sometimes listened to birds while he practiced flute. He claimed to have incorporated bird song into some of his improvisational music.

In the psychedelic era of the 1960s and 1970s, many rock bands included sound effects in their recordings. Birds were a popular choice. The English band Pink Floyd included bird sound effects in many of the songs from their 1969 albums ''Soundtrack from the Film More'' and ''Ummagumma'' (for example, Grantchester Meadows). Similarly, the English singer Kate Bush incorporated bird sound effects into much of the music on her 2005 album, Aerial.

The Music hall artist Ronnie Ronalde has gained notoriety for his whistling imitations of birds and for integrating birdsong with human song. His songs 'In A Monastery Garden' and 'If I Were A Blackbird' include imitations of the blackbird, his "signature bird."

The French composer François-Bernard Mâche has been credited with the creation of zoomusicology, the study of the music of animals. His essay ''Musique, mythe, nature, ou les Dauphins d'Arion'' (1983) includes a study of "ornitho-musicology", in which he speaks of "animal musics" and a longing to connect with nature.

The German DJ, techno music producer and naturalist Dominik Eulberg is an avid bird watcher, and several tracks by him prominently feature sampled bird sounds and even are titled after his favourite specimens.

The productions of The Jewelled Antler Collective often use field recordings featuring birdsong.

In 2007, The CT Collective issed two free albums devoted to music made using bird songs (one with human interaction, one without). The project was co-ordinated by looping musician Nick Robinson

Bird song and poetry

Bird song is a popular subject in poetry. Famous poems inspired by bird song include Percy Bysshe Shelley's To a Skylark ("Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!/Bird thou never wert") and Gerard Manley Hopkins' Sea and Skylark. Birdsongs and their relations to Middle-earth inhabitants are a common motif in J. R. R. Tolkien's literary work. The Grateful Dead performed a song called "Bird Song" that Jerry Garcia wrote and dedicated to Janis Joplin.

See also

Animal communication

Animal language

Bioacoustics

Biomusic

Biophony

Cock a doodle doo

Dawn chorus

Flight Call

Language of the birds

Lateralization of bird song

Lombard effect

Talking bird

Vinkenzetting

Vocal learning

References

External links

Bird Language: Exploring the Language of Nature with Jon Young A blog with stories and tips for learning the patterns in bird vocalizations.

Large collection of audio bird calls collected in Arizona from Ask A Biologist.

Community online database of downloadable bird sounds from around the globe ~50000 recordings of ~6700 species as of May 2010.

British Library's archive of bird sounds representing more than 8,000 species.

Listen to Nature includes article "The Language of Birds"

Bird songs in movies: an unnatural history Humor piece on soundtrack errors

How do Birds Sing? The mechanics and anatomy of bird song production

Bioacoustic Research Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology distributes a number of different free bird song synthesis & analysis programs.

Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is the world's largest collection of animal sounds and associated video.

Male shama songs and mimic of sounds

Audio Pitch Tracer Accurate transcription of clean recordings of bird vocalizations to midi

Category:Animal sounds Category:Song forms Category:Zoomusicology Category:Ornithology Category:Neuroethology Category:Animal identification

ca:Vocalització dels ocells da:Fuglesang de:Vogelgesang et:Linnulaul es:Vocalización de las aves eo:Birdkanto fr:Vocalisation des oiseaux is:Fuglasöngur nl:Vogelzang (ornithologie) nn:Fuglevokalisering pl:Ptasi śpiew pt:Vocalização das aves ru:Вокализация птиц sl:Oglašanje ptic sv:Fågelläte uk:Вокалізація птахів

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Lene Lovich
background	solo_singer
birth name	Lili-Marlene Premilovich
born	March 30, 1949Detroit, MichiganUnited States
instrument	Vocals
genre	New Wave
occupation	Musician, Songwriter
years active	1975–present
label	Polydor Records, Stiff Records }}

Lene Lovich (born 30 March 1949) is an American singer based in England, who first gained attention as part of the New Wave music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her most popular hit single was "Lucky Number", first released in 1979.

Early years

Lovich was born Lili-Marlene Premilovich in Detroit, Michigan, to an English mother and a Serbian father. After her father had health problems, her mother took her and her three siblings to live in Hull, England. Lovich was 13 years old at the time. She met the guitarist/songwriter Les Chappell when they were teenagers, and he became her longtime collaborator and life partner. In autumn 1968, they went to London to attend art school. It was there that Lovich first tied her hair into the plaits that later became a visual trademark, though at first she did it to keep her hair out of the clay when studying sculpture.

Over the following decade, Lovich attended several art schools, busked around the London Underground and appeared in cabaret clubs as an "Oriental" dancer. She also travelled to Spain, where she visited Salvador Dalí in his home. She played acoustic rock music around London, sang in the mass choir of a show called ''Quintessence'' at the Royal Albert Hall, played a soldier in Arthur Brown's show, worked as a go-go dancer with the Radio One Roadshow, toured Italy with a West Indian soul band, and played saxophone for Bob Flag's Balloon and Banana Band and for an all-girl cabaret trio, The Sensations. She recorded screams for horror films, wrote lyrics for French disco star Cerrone (including the sci-fi dance smash "Supernature", later recorded by Lovich herself) and worked with various fringe theatre groups. She was also one of thousands of audience members invited to sing along at the 1972 Lanchester Arts Festival at the Locarno Ballroom in Coventry when Chuck Berry recorded "My Ding-a-Ling" for Chess Records.

1975-1986

In 1975, Lovich joined The Diversions, a funk group that put out five singles and an album on Polydor Records, without success. In 1976 she released a 7" 3-track "maxi-single" in the UK under her own name, aimed at the Christmas market: "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus/The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)/Happy Christmas" (Polydor 2058 812)

In 1977, Lovich, along with recording engineer Alain Wisniak, provided lyrics for "Supernature", a song featuring music composed by French percussionist and disco music performer Cerrone. The song, with its surreal lyrics describing a world in which nature has risen to fight against desecration and destruction by humanity, is indicative of Lovich's interest in animal rights issues.

In 1978, disc jockey and author Charlie Gillett presented her recording of "I Think We're Alone Now", a cover version of a song originally performed by Tommy James and the Shondells, to Stiff Records boss, Dave Robinson. Robinson immediately proposed to release it as a single on Stiff, for which Lovich and Chappell had to write and record a B-side at short notice. They came up with "Lucky Number", which was then released as an A-side and became a Top 3 hit in the UK.

Invited by Robinson to participate in the forthcoming ''Be Stiff Route 78 Tour'' in 1978, Lovich quickly recorded her first album for Stiff, ''Stateless'', which contained "Lucky Number" and another Top 20 hit, "Say When". Lovich's musical style combined her own quirky inventions with contemporary punk rock and new wave styles. She then recorded the albums ''Flex'' and ''No-Man's-Land'' for Stiff over the next few years, as well as an EP titled ''New Toy'', the title cut penned by touring band member Thomas Dolby, and a cover of the Devo song ''Be Stiff''. She also recorded vocals for "Picnic Boy" by The Residents as "Sandy Sandwich".

Lovich co-wrote with Chappell and Chris Judge Smith and performed ''Mata Hari'', a play/musical at the Lyric Hammersmith, London, October/November 1982. During this time she was having disputes with Stiff. The success of the show and pressure from Epic, her US label, persuaded Stiff to release and promote ''No Man's Land''. Following her departure from Stiff, Lovich released "Don't Kill The Animals," a single with Nina Hagen, with whom she had previously appeared in ''Cha Cha'', a film that also starred Herman Brood; together, the three created the film's soundtrack.

1989 album

In 1989, after an absence of several years due to raising a family, she recorded the album ''March'' on Pathfinder Records. It was only moderately successful and was not released until nearly a year after the album's single "Wonderland" had been issued and had become an American dance hit. She also toured the US three times immediately before, during and shortly after the release of March, giving US fans their only glimpse of her for many years to come. All three tours culminated with benefit concerts for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Her tours supporting March were done with a semi-full band, featuring the electronic duo Tanz Waffen as her backup band in addition to herself and longtime partner Chappell.

Lovich contributed to the opera ''The Fall of the House of Usher'' (1991) by Peter Hammill and Judge Smith, singing the part of Madeline Usher.

Present day

Lovich continues to perform in much the same style she did back in the 1970s and 1980s, with Chappell still at her side. In 2005 she appeared on Hawkwind's ''Take Me to Your Leader'' CD, as well as appearing occasionally on stage with them. Lovich's first album since ''March'', entitled ''Shadows and Dust'' received a limited release on the Stereo Society label on 13 September 2005. She played for the first time in many years with a full band at the Drop Dead Festival in 2006.

In 2007, MVD Visual released ''Lene Lovich: Live from New York'', a DVD featuring a performance Lovich gave at Studio 54 in 1981. In late 2007, both Lovich and Chappell produced a new edge recording of their hit "Lucky Number". The version was performed by rock group Eastroad, and was used by the BBC for its coverage of the 2008 World Snooker Championship.

In 2011, Lovich sang the part of Eurydice in the songstory ''Orfeas'' by Judge Smith.

Discography

Albums

''Stateless'' (1978) #35 UK

''Flex'' (1979) #19 UK, #39 DE

''1980 Global Assault - Recorded Live In London And Boston'' (1980) Promo only

''New Toy'' (1981)

''No-Man's-Land'' (1982)

''March'' (1989)

''Shadows and Dust'' (2005)

Compilations

''The Stiff Years - Volume 1''

''The Stiff Years - Volume 2''

''The Best of Lene Lovich'' (1997)

''The Very Best Of'' (1997)

''Lucky Number - The Best Of'' (2004)

DVDs

''Lene Lovich: Live from New York'' (2007)

Singles

Year	Title	Chart-Position			Album
		UK Singles Chart>UK	Media Control Charts>DE	Austria>AT
1976	"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"
1978	"I Think We're Alone Now"
	"Lucky Number"
"Say When"
"Bird Song"
	"Angels"
"What Will I Do Without You"
"The Night"
1981	"New Toy"				''New Toy''
	"It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerz)"
"Blue Hotel"
1986	"Don't Kill The Animals" (feat. Nina Hagen)				-
1989	"Wonderland"				''March''
1999	"Shapeshifter" (feat. Comical Brothers)				''Shadows and Dust''

External links

Lene Lovich at Stereo Society

Innovation in New Wave: Lene Lovich, Perfect Sound Forever

Lene Lovich fan site

References

Category:1949 births Category:American people of English descent Category:Female New Wave singers Category:Living people Category:People from Detroit, Michigan Category:People from London Category:American people of Serbian descent Category:American New Wave musicians

de:Lene Lovich es:Lene Lovich it:Lene Lovich hu:Lene Lovich nl:Lene Lovich ru:Лена Лович

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Ingrid Michaelson
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Ingrid Ellen Egbert Michaelson
Born	December 08, 1979
Origin	Staten Island, New York, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, ukulele
Genre	Indie pop, indie folk
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician
Years active	2002–present
Label	Cabin 24 Records
Website	TwitterYouTube
Domestic partner(s)	Greg Laswell (2009 - present)
Past members	}}

Ingrid Ewe Ellen Egbert Michaelson (born December 8, 1979) is a New York-based indie-pop singer-songwriter, known for her single "The Way I Am". Her music has been featured in episodes of several popular television shows, including ''Scrubs'', ''Bones'', ''Grey's Anatomy'' ''The Big C'' and ''One Tree Hill'', as well as in Old Navy's Fall 2007 Fair Isle and Opel's/Vauxhall's Meriva 2010 advertising campaign.

Biography

Michaelson was born to artistic parents. Her father is a composer and her mother is a sculptor. Michaelson took up piano at age four, and trained until seven at Manhattan's Third Street Music School, continuing for many more years at the Jewish Community Center of Staten Island's Dorothy Delson Kuhn Music Institute. While there she met vocal coach Elizabeth McCullough, who worked with her through high school. She is a graduate of Staten Island Technical High School and Binghamton University, where she received a degree in theater. While at Binghamton University she was a member of the Binghamtonics, a co-ed acappella group, as well as the Pappy Parker Players, an improv comedy group, and the theatre repertory company under Sue Peters. Her time at Binghamton is mentioned in the song "The Hat". She grew up doing a musical theater group called "Kids On Stage". Later in life, she became a director until she decided to pursue her career in music.

Toward the end of 2008, she opened for Jason Mraz on his Europe tour, touring in the UK, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and France among others. In the second half of 2009, Ingrid began her "Everybody" tour of the United States and Europe which continued in 2010.

Television appearances

A number of Michaelson's songs have been used in the TV series ''Grey's Anatomy''. "The Way I Am" was featured in "Six Days (Part 2)" (January 11, 2007), garnering attention from viewers. "Breakable" was featured in "Staring at the Sun" (16 November 2006). "Corner of Your Heart" was featured in "Testing 1-2-3" (13 September 2007)."Keep Breathing" was featured on the May 17, 2007 season 3 finale, "Didn't We Almost Have It All". "Giving Up" was featured in the 22 May 2008 season 4 finale, "Freedom". "Turn to Stone", a new B-side single from her upcoming album, ''Everybody'', was featured in the 7 May 2009 season 5 episode, "What a Difference a Day Makes". "All Love" was featured in the second hour of the Season 5 finale. "The Chain" was featured in the 1 October 2009 season 6 episode "I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watchin' Me". On January 21, 2010, "Everybody" was played on Season 6."Everybody" also appeared on "Brothers & Sisters" Season 4 Episode 14.

Four of her songs have also appeared in ''One Tree Hill''. "Masochist" was featured in Season 4, Episode 13: "Pictures of You"; "Overboard", was used in Season 4, Episode 14: "Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers"; "The Way I Am" was used in Season 4, Episode 19: "Ashes of Dreams You Let Die"; and "Can't Help Falling In Love" was used in Season 6, Episode 23: "Forever And Almost Always". Other appearances include "The Way I Am" and "Breakable" in ''The Real World: Denver'', as well as "The Way I Am", "Die Alone" and "Far Away (Untitled)" in ''The Bad Girls Club''. "Breakable" was also featured in Season 2, Episode 3: "The List is Life" of ''Kyle XY''. Old Navy featured "The Way I Am" in their fall/winter advertisement. "Are We There Yet" was featured on the ABC family show "Make it or Break it"

On Valentine's Day 2008, Michaelson was the musical guest on ''Good Morning America'', and the following day she appeared on ''Live with Regis and Kelly''. She has also appeared on VH1, ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'', ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'', ''The AT&T; Blue Room'', ''Live From The Artists Den'', NPR's ''Bryant Park Project'', ''The Rachael Ray Show'' and ''Last Call with Carson Daly'', where she performed with Joshua Radin.

Her song "Be OK" appears in ''The House Bunny'', episode 15 of the second season of NBC's 2010 series ''Parenthood'', a Traveler's Insurance commercial, a Mott's Apple Juice commercial featuring actress Marcia Cross., and a Ritz Crackers commercial in 2011. It was also used in a season 4 episode of ''Ugly Betty''.

Michaelson recorded a duet with Sara Bareilles called "Winter Song", which featured on the ''The Hotel Café Presents Winter Songs''. An animated music video was released to accompany the song. They performed the song on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' on December 9, 2008. This was also featured in ''Grey's Anatomy''s fifth season. "Winter Song" was also featured on the eighth episode of season 4 of ''Brothers & Sisters'', the seventeenth episode of ''Scrubs'' season eight, and on the fifth episode of the third season of ''Army Wives''. Michaelson and Bareilles performed the song at the 2010 National Christmas Tree Lighting.

Her song "Starting Now" appeared in ''Pretty Little Liars'' on July 20, 2010 in the seventh episode of season 1, "The Homecoming Hangover".

Her song "You and I", from the 2008 album ''Be OK'', plays over the credits of the 2010 romantic comedy ''My Girlfriend's Boyfriend'', starring Alyssa Milano, Christopher Gorham, Michael Landes, Tom Lenk and Beau Bridges.

Part of her song "Everybody" was featured in 2010's Ramona and Beezus.

Additionally, her song "The Chain" was featured in the CW show Hellcats, season 1, episode 12 "Papa, Oh Papa" on January, 24, 2011.

Her song "Maybe" was featured on the ABC medical drama "Body of Proof" in the episode "Society Hill", the sixth episode of the first season. It was also used on the USA network show, In Plain Sight, in the episode, "I'm a Liver, Not a Fighter," in Season 4.

Her song, Sort Of, was used on the advert for the internet browser Google Chrome. The advert premièred during the champions league final in May 2011. Her song "Turn to Stone" was featured on The Vampire Diaries in the episode "As I Lay Dying", the season 2 finale on May 12, 2011. On June 15, 2011 "Turn to Stone" was used for a contemporary dance routine on So You Think You Can Dance.

Her song "Keep Breathing" was featured on The Big C in Series one, Episode 2 towards the end of the episode

Collaborations

In 2006, Ingrid teamed up with William Fitzsimmons on his album ''Goodnight'', which was released that same year.

Ingrid and her friend Sara Bareilles co-wrote "Winter Song" which was featured on ''The Hotel Café Presents Winter Songs'', a compilation of both original recordings as well as classic holiday tracks sung by a lineup of female singer-songwriters. Ingrid also worked with Bareilles, performing "Winter Song" for the President Obama and his family as well as many spectators at the National Christmas Tree Lighting in December 2010.

Ingrid provided back-up vocals on two songs from PlayRadioPlay!'s album ''Texas'', including "I'm a Pirate, You're a Princess" and the title track, "Texas".

Ingrid provided back-up vocals on Greg Laswell's album, ''Take A Bow'', which was released on May 4, 2010. Collaboration was done on the songs "Take Everything," "My Fight (For You)," and "Come Clean."

Ingrid's band includes Allie Moss and Bess Rogers on guitar, who are singer/songwriters in their own right. Allie Moss released a 2009 EP entitled ''Passerby''. A single from the EP, "Corner", has been picked up by BT for their BT Infinity television commercials in the UK. Other band members include Chris Kuffner (guitar), husband of Bess Rogers, Saul Simon-MacWilliams (keys) and Elliot Jacobson (drums).

In 2010, Ingrid co-wrote a song entitled "Parachute" with Marshall Altman which was covered by singer Cheryl Cole on her debut solo album ''3 Words''; it hit number 1 in the UK. Ingrid initially felt the track was "so poppy" that she could not release it herself. However, after the song was reworked by "Everybody" producer Dan Romer to make a more "interesting, funky production", Ingrid released the song as a personal single. To date, the song has received two separate music videos.

Of the release of "Parachute" and upcoming material, Ingrid explained in a 2010 interview with Billboard.com, "I just felt like I wanted to put something out. I'm not ready to put a full album out, so we thought we'd put this out and see how people take it or don't take it," saying that she expects to release her next album, "probably in the middle of next year."

Discography

Studio albums

Title	Details	Peak chart positions
		! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"
''Slow the Rain''		* Release date: January 10, 2005	* Label: self-released	Compact disc>CD, music download	—	—	—	—	—
! scope="row"		* Release date: May 16, 2007	* Label: Cabin 24 Records	* Formats: CD, music download	63	17	1	6	100
! scope="row"		* Release date: October 14, 2008	* Label: Cabin 24 Records	* Formats: CD, music download	35	13	—	2	—
! scope="row"		* Release date: August 25, 2009	* Label: Cabin 24 Records	* Formats: CD, music download	18	7	—	—	—

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions								Album
		! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"
2007	! scope="row"	37	20	15	—	36	51	69	—		US">Music recording sales certification	Album
! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"
2007	! scope="row"	37	20	15	—	36	51	69	—		US: Platinum
2008	! scope="row"	91	—	—	—	45	—	64	174
2009	! scope="row"	—	27	14	38	—	—	97	—
2010	"Everybody"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

References

External links

Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:Binghamton University alumni Category:People from New York City Category:People from Staten Island Category:Musicians from New York City Category:American singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American pianists Category:American sopranos Category:American guitarists Category:Ukulele players Category:American folk musicians

de:Ingrid Michaelson es:Ingrid Michaelson fr:Ingrid Michaelson it:Ingrid Michaelson nl:Ingrid Michaelson pl:Ingrid Michaelson pt:Ingrid Michaelson ro:Ingrid Michaelson ru:Майклсон, Ингрид uk:Інгрід Майкельсон

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Sir David Attenborough
birth date	May 08, 1926
birth place	Isleworth, London, England
residence	Richmond, London
nationality	British
alma mater
occupation
title
spouse	Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel (m. 1950–1997, her death)
children
footnotes	}}

Sir David Frederick Attenborough () OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS, FZS, FSA (born 8 May 1926 in London, England) is a broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the respected face and voice of natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years. He is best known for writing and presenting the nine ''Life'' series, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, which collectively form a comprehensive survey of all life on the planet. He is also a former senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s.

He is a younger brother of director, producer and actor Richard Attenborough.

Early life and family

Attenborough grew up in College House on the campus of the University of Leicester, where his father, Frederick, was principal. He is the middle of three sons (his elder brother, Richard, became an actor/film director and his younger brother, John Michael Attenborough, an executive at Alfa Romeo). During World War II his parents also adopted two Jewish refugee girls from Europe.

Attenborough spent his childhood collecting fossils, stones and other natural specimens. He received encouragement in this pursuit at age seven, when a young Jacquetta Hawkes admired his "museum". A few years later, one of his adoptive sisters gave him a piece of amber filled with prehistoric creatures; some 50 years later, it would be the focus of his programme ''The Amber Time Machine''.

Attenborough was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester and then won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge in 1945, where he studied geology and zoology and obtained a degree in Natural Sciences. In 1947, he was called up for National Service in the Royal Navy and spent two years stationed in North Wales and the Firth of Forth.

In 1950, Attenborough married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel; the marriage lasted until her death in 1997. The couple had two children, Robert and Susan.

His son, Robert Attenborough, is a senior lecturer in Bioanthropology for the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra.

First years at BBC

After leaving the Navy, Attenborough took a position editing children's science textbooks for a publishing company. He soon became disillusioned with the work, however, and in 1950, he applied for a job as a radio talks producer with the BBC. Although he was rejected for this job, his CV later attracted the interest of Mary Adams, head of the Talks (factual broadcasting) department of the BBC's fledgling television service. Attenborough, like most Britons at that time, did not own a television, and he had seen only one programme in his life. However, he accepted Adams' offer of a three-month training course, and in 1952, he joined the BBC full time. Initially discouraged from appearing on camera because Adams thought his teeth were too big, he became a producer for the Talks Department, which handled all non-fiction broadcasts. His early projects included the quiz show ''Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?'' and ''Song Hunter'', a series about folk music presented by Alan Lomax.

Attenborough's association with natural history programmes began when he produced and presented the three-part series ''The Pattern of Animals''. The studio-bound programme featured animals from London Zoo, with the naturalist Sir Julian Huxley discussing their use of camouflage, aposematism and courtship displays. Through this programme, Attenborough met Jack Lester, the curator of the zoo's reptile house, and they decided to make a series about an animal-collecting expedition. The result was ''Zoo Quest'', first broadcast in 1954, which Attenborough presented at short notice, due to Lester being taken ill.

In 1957, the BBC Natural History Unit was formally established in Bristol. Attenborough was asked to join it, but declined, not wishing to move from London where he and his young family were settled. Instead he formed his own department, the Travel and Exploration Unit, which allowed him to continue to front the ''Zoo Quest'' programmes as well as produce other documentaries, notably the ''Travellers’ Tales'' and ''Adventure'' series.

In the early 1960s, Attenborough resigned from the permanent staff of the BBC to study for a postgraduate degree in social anthropology at the London School of Economics, interweaving his study with further filming. However, he accepted an invitation to return to the BBC as Controller of BBC Two before he could finish the degree.

BBC administration

Attenborough became the Controller of BBC Two in March 1965, but had a clause inserted in his contract that would allow him to continue making programmes on an occasional basis. Later the same year, he filmed elephants in Tanzania, and in 1969, he made a three-part series on the cultural history of Bali. For the 1971 film ''A Blank on the Map'', he joined the first Western expedition to a remote highland valley in New Guinea to seek out an uncontacted tribe.

BBC Two was launched in 1964, but had struggled to capture the public's imagination. When Attenborough arrived as Controller, he quickly abolished the channel's quirky kangaroo mascot and shook up the schedule. With a mission to make BBC Two's output diverse and different from that offered by other networks, he began to establish a portfolio of programmes that defined the channel's identity for decades to come. Under his tenure, music, the arts, entertainment, archaeology, experimental comedy, travel, drama, sport, business, science and natural history all found a place in the weekly schedules. Often, an eclectic mix was offered within a single evening's viewing. Programmes he commissioned included ''Man Alive'', ''Call My Bluff'', ''Chronicle'', ''Life'', ''One Pair of Eyes'', ''The Old Grey Whistle Test'', ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' and ''The Money Programme''. When BBC Two became the first British channel to broadcast in colour in 1967, Attenborough took advantage by introducing televised snooker, as well as bringing rugby league to British television on a regular basis via the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy.

One of his most significant decisions was to order a 13-part series on the history of Western art, to show off the quality of the new UHF colour television service that BBC Two offered. Broadcast to universal acclaim in 1969, ''Civilisation'' set the blueprint for landmark authored documentaries, which were informally known as "tombstone" or "sledgehammer" projects. Others followed, including Jacob Bronowski's ''The Ascent of Man'' (also commissioned by Attenborough), and Alistair Cooke's ''America''. Attenborough thought that the story of evolution would be a natural subject for such a series. He shared his idea with Chris Parsons, a producer at the Natural History Unit, who came up with the title ''Life on Earth'' and returned to Bristol to start planning the series. Attenborough harboured a strong desire to present the series himself, but this would not be possible so long as he remained in a management post.

In 1969, Attenborough was promoted to Director of Programmes, making him responsible for the output of both BBC channels. His tasks, which included agreeing budgets, attending board meetings and firing staff, were now far removed from the business of filming programmes. When Attenborough's name was being suggested as a candidate for the position of Director General of the BBC in 1972, he phoned his brother Richard to confess that he had no appetite for the job. Early the following year, he left his post to return to full-time programme making, leaving him free to write and present the planned natural history epic.

Return to broadcasting

After his resignation, Attenborough became a freelance broadcaster and immediately started work on his next project, a pre-arranged trip to Indonesia with a crew from the Natural History Unit. It resulted in the 1973 series ''Eastwards with Attenborough'', which was similar in tone to the earlier ''Zoo Quests'' but without the animal-collecting element.

On his return, he began to work on the scripts for ''Life on Earth''. Due to the scale of his ambition, the BBC decided to partner with an American network to secure the necessary funding. While the negotiations were proceeding he worked on a number of other television projects. He presented a series on tribal art (''The Tribal Eye'', 1975) and another on the voyages of discovery (''The Explorers'', 1975). He also presented a BBC children's series about cryptozoology entitled ''Fabulous Animals'' (1975), which featured mythical creatures such as the griffin and kraken. Eventually, the BBC signed a co-production deal with Turner Broadcasting and ''Life on Earth'' moved into production in 1976.

"Life" series

Beginning with ''Life on Earth'' in 1979, Attenborough set about creating a body of work which became a benchmark of quality in wildlife film-making and influenced a generation of documentary film-makers. The series also established many of the hallmarks of the BBC's natural history output. By treating his subject seriously and researching the latest discoveries, Attenborough and his production team gained the trust of the scientific community, who responded by allowing him to feature their subjects in his programmes. In Rwanda, for example, Attenborough and his crew were granted privileged access to film Dian Fossey's research group of mountain gorillas. Innovation was another factor in ''Life on Earth'''s success: new film-making techniques were devised to get the shots Attenborough wanted, with a focus on events and animals that were hitherto unfilmed. Computerised airline schedules, which had only recently been introduced, enabled the series to be elaborately devised so that Attenborough visited several locations around the globe in each episode, sometimes even changing continents mid-sentence. Although appearing as the on-screen presenter, he consciously restricted his pieces to camera to give his subjects top billing.

The success of ''Life on Earth'' prompted the BBC to consider a follow-up, and five years later, ''The Living Planet'' was screened. This time, Attenborough built his series around the theme of ecology, the adaptations of livings things to their environment. It was another critical and commercial success, generating huge international sales for the BBC. In 1990, ''The Trials of Life'' completed the original "Life" trilogy, looking at animal behaviour through the different stages of life. The series drew strong reactions from the viewing public for its sequences of killer whales hunting sea lions on a Patagonian beach and chimpanzees hunting and violently killing a colobus monkey.

In the 1990s, Attenborough continued to use the "Life" moniker for a succession of authored documentaries. In 1993, he presented ''Life in the Freezer'', the first television series to survey the natural history of Antarctica. Although past normal retirement age, he then embarked on a number of more specialised surveys of the natural world, beginning with plants. They proved a difficult subject for his producers, who had to deliver five hours of television featuring what are essentially immobile objects. The result, ''The Private Life of Plants'' (1995), showed plants as dynamic organisms by using time-lapse photography to speed up their growth.

Prompted by an enthusiastic ornithologist at the BBC Natural History Unit, Attenborough then turned his attention to the animal kingdom and in particular, birds. As he was neither an obsessive twitcher, nor a bird expert, he decided he was better qualified to make ''The Life of Birds'' (1998) on the theme of behaviour. The order of the remaining "Life" series was dictated by developments in camera technology. For ''The Life of Mammals'' (2002), low-light and infrared cameras were deployed to reveal the behaviour of nocturnal mammals. The series contains a number of memorable two shots of Attenborough and his subjects, which included chimpanzees, a blue whale and a grizzly bear. Advances in macro photography made it possible to capture natural behaviour of very small creatures for the first time, and in 2005, ''Life in the Undergrowth'' introduced audiences to the world of invertebrates.

At this point, Attenborough realised that he had spent 20 years unconsciously assembling a collection of programmes on all the major groups of terrestrial animals and plants — only reptiles and amphibians were missing. When ''Life in Cold Blood'' was broadcast in 2008, he had the satisfaction of completing the set, brought together in a DVD encyclopaedia called ''Life on Land''. In an interview that year, Attenborough was asked to sum up his achievement, and responded:

However, in 2010 Attenborough asserted that his forthcoming ''First Life'' — dealing with evolutionary history before ''Life on Earth'' — should also be included within the "Life" series. In the documentary ''Attenborough's Journey'' he stated, "This series, to a degree which I really didn't fully appreciate until I started working on it, really completes the set."

Other documentaries

Alongside the "Life" series, Attenborough has continued to work on other television documentaries, mainly in the natural history genre. He wrote and presented a series on man's influence on the natural history of the Mediterranean basin, ''The First Eden'', in 1987. Two years later, he demonstrated his passion for fossils in ''Lost Worlds Vanished Lives''.

Attenborough narrated every episode of ''Wildlife on One'', a BBC One wildlife series which ran for 253 episodes between 1977 and 2005. At its peak, it drew a weekly audience of eight to ten million, and the 1987 episode "Meerkats United" was voted the best wildlife documentary of all time by BBC viewers. He has also narrated over 50 episodes of ''Natural World'', BBC Two's flagship wildlife series. (Its forerunner, ''The World About Us'', was created by Attenborough in 1969, as a vehicle for colour television.) In 1997, he narrated the ''BBC Wildlife Specials'', each focussing on a charismatic species, and screened to mark the Natural History Unit's 40th anniversary.

As a writer and narrator, he continued to collaborate with the BBC Natural History Unit in the new millennium. Alastair Fothergill, a senior producer with whom Attenborough had worked on ''The Trials of Life'' and ''Life in the Freezer'', was making ''The Blue Planet'' (2001), the Unit's first comprehensive series on marine life. He decided not to use an on-screen presenter due to difficulties in speaking to camera through diving apparatus, but asked Attenborough to narrate the films. The same team reunited for ''Planet Earth'' (2006), the biggest nature documentary ever made for television, and the first BBC wildlife series to be shot in high definition. In 2009, Attenborough wrote and narrated ''Life'', a ten-part series focussing on extraordinary animal behaviour, and narrated ''Nature's Great Events'', which showed how seasonal changes trigger major natural spectacles.

By the turn of the millennium, Attenborough's authored documentaries were adopting a more overtly environmentalist stance. In ''State of the Planet'' (2000), he used the latest scientific evidence and interviews with leading scientists and conservationists to assess the impact of man's activities on the natural world. He later turned to the issues of global warming (''The Truth about Climate Change'', 2006) and human population growth (''How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?'', 2009). He also contributed a programme which highlighted the plight of endangered species to the BBC's ''Saving Planet Earth'' project in 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Natural History Unit.

Interestingly, although Attenborough's documentaries have attained immense popularity in the United States, several have never been made available on DVD in NTSC format, most notably those that cast doubt upon conservative religious or political positions. These include:

''Life on Earth'', which examines the evidence for evolution.

''State of the Planet''

''The Truth About Climate Change''

''First Life'', which examines the origin of life.

Current projects

Attenborough continues to work into his ninth decade, and is currently involved in a number of projects for the BBC and for Sky.

He is writing and presenting ''Frozen Planet'', a major new series for BBC One which examines the impact of a warming climate on the people and wildlife of the polar regions. He has also recently completed two projects for BBC Two. ''Madagascar'' (which first aired weekly between the 9 to 23 February 2011) a three-part series giving an overview of Madagascar's unique wildlife. The accompanying documentary ''Attenborough and the Giant Egg'' (which first aired on the 2nd of March 2011) features the elephant bird egg which Attenborough discovered on his first filming expedition to the island in the 1960s.

Attenborough is also forging a new partnership with Sky, working on documentaries for the broadcaster's new 3D network, Sky 3D. Their first collaboration is ''Flying Monsters 3D'', a film about pterosaurs which debuted on Christmas Day 2010. A second film, ''Penguin Island 3D'', has also been announced. Both are produced by Atlantic Productions, the company behind Attenborough's 2010 series ''First Life''.

Other work

From 1983, Attenborough worked on two environmentally themed musicals with the WWF and writers Peter Rose and Anne Conlon. ''Yanomamo'' was the first, about the Amazon rainforest, and the second, ''Ocean World'', premiered at the Royal Festival Hall in 1991. They were both narrated by Attenborough on their national tour, and recorded on to audio cassette. ''Ocean World'' was also filmed for Channel 4 and later released.

In 1990, he highlighted the case of Mahjoub Sharif as part of the BBC's ''Prisoners of Conscience'' series.

In January 2009, the BBC commissioned Attenborough to provide a series of 20 ten-minute monologues covering the history of nature. Entitled ''David Attenborough's Life Stories'', they are broadcast on Radio 4 in the Friday night slot vacated by Alistair Cooke's ''Letter from America''. Part of Radio 4's ''A Point of View'' strand, the talks are also available as podcasts.

He appeared in the 2009 Children's Prom at the BBC Promenade Concerts and in the Last Night of the Proms on 12 September 2009, playing a floor polisher in Sir Malcolm Arnold's "A Grand, Grand Overture" (after which he was "shot" by Rory Bremner, who was playing the gun).

Attenborough also serves on the advisory board of ''BBC Wildlife'' magazine.

Achievements, awards and recognition

{| style="float:right; background:#f9f9f9; border:1px solid darkgrey;" |- !align="left"|Styles and honours |- |

Mr David Attenborough (1926–1974)

Mr David Attenborough CBE (1974–1983)

Mr David Attenborough CBE FRS (1983–1985)

Sir David Attenborough CBE FRS (1985–1991)

Sir David Attenborough CVO CBE FRS (1991–1996)

Sir David Attenborough CH CVO CBE FRS (1996–2005)

Sir David Attenborough OM CH CVO CBE FRS (2005–)

|}

Attenborough's contribution to broadcasting and wildlife film-making has brought him international recognition. He has been called "the great communicator, the peerless educator" and "the greatest broadcaster of our time". His programmes are often cited as an example of what public service broadcasting should be, even by critics of the BBC, and has influenced a generation of wildlife film-makers.

Honorary titles

In 2010 it was reported that Attenborough has been given 29 honorary degrees by British universities, more than any other person. In 1980, he was honoured by the Open University, with whom he has had a close association throughout his career. He also has honorary Doctor of Science awards from the University of Cambridge (1984) and the University of Oxford (1988). In 2006, the two eldest Attenborough brothers returned to their home city to receive the title of Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the University of Leicester, "in recognition of a record of continuing distinguished service to the University." David Attenborough was previously awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the university in 1970, and was made an honorary Freeman of the City of Leicester in 1990.

Attenborough has received the title Honorary Fellow from Clare College, Cambridge (1980), the Zoological Society of London (1998), the Linnean Society (1999), the Institute of Biology (2000) and the Society of Antiquaries (2007).

Recognition

Attenborough has featured as the subject of a number of BBC television programmes. ''Life on Air'' (2002) examined the legacy of his work and ''Attenborough the Controller'' (2002) focused on his time in charge of BBC Two. He also featured prominently in ''The Way We Went Wild'' (2004), a series about natural history television presenters, and ''100 Years of Wildlife Films'' (2007), a special programme marking the centenary of the nature documentary. In 2006, British television viewers were asked to vote for their ''Favourite Attenborough Moments'' for a UKTV poll to coincide with the broadcaster's 80th birthday. The winning clip showed Attenborough observing the mimicry skills of the superb lyrebird.

Attenborough was named as the most trusted celebrity in Britain in a 2006 Reader's Digest poll,. and the following year he won ''The Culture Show'''s Living Icon Award. He has also been named among the 100 Greatest Britons in a 2002 BBC poll and is one of the top ten "Heroes of Our Time" according to ''New Statesman'' magazine.

He has the distinction of having a number of newly-discovered species and fossils being named in his honour. In 1993, after discovering that the Mesozoic reptile ''Plesiosaurus conybeari'' had not, in fact, been a true plesiosaur, the paleontologist Robert Bakker renamed the species ''Attenborosaurus conybeari''. A fossilised armoured fish discovered at the Gogo Formation, Western Australia in 2008 was given the name ''Materpiscis attenboroughi'', after Attenborough had filmed at the site and highlighted its scientific importance in ''Life on Earth''. The ''Materpiscis'' fossil is believed to be the earliest organism capable of internal fertilisation.

He has also lent his name to a species of Ecuadorian flowering tree, ''Blakea attenboroughi'', one of the world's largest carnivorous plants, ''Nepenthes attenboroughii'', and one of only four species of long-beaked echidna, the critically endangered ''Zaglossus attenboroughi'', discovered by explorer and zoologist Tim Flannery in the Cyclops Mountains of New Guinea in 1998.

In September 2009, London's Natural History Museum opened the Attenborough Studio, part of its Darwin Centre development.

Awards

1970: BAFTA Desmond Davis Award

1974: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)

1980: BAFTA Fellowship

1983: Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)

1985: Knighthood

1991: Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) for producing Queen Elizabeth II's Christmas broadcast for a number of years from 1986

1991: Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

1996: Companion of Honour (CH) "for services to nature broadcasting"

1998: International Cosmos Prize

2003: Michael Faraday Prize awarded by the Royal Society

2004: Descartes Prize for Outstanding Science Communication Actions

2004: Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum

2005: Order of Merit (OM)

2005: Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest

2006: National Television Awards Special Recognition Award

2006: Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management - Institute Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the public perception and understanding of ecology

2006: The Culture Show British Icon Award

2007: British Naturalists' Association Peter Scott Memorial Award

2009: BAFTA Specialist factual award for ''Life In Cold Blood''

2009: Prince of Asturias Award

2010: Fonseca Prize

2010: Queensland Museum Medal

Views and advocacy

Environmental causes

Attenborough's programmes have often included references to the impact of human society on the natural world. The last episode of ''The Living Planet'', for example, focuses almost entirely on humans' destruction of the environment and ways that it could be stopped or reversed. Despite this, he has been criticised for not giving enough prominence to environmental messages. Some environmentalists feel that programmes like Attenborough's give a false picture of idyllic wilderness and do not do enough to acknowledge that such areas are increasingly encroached upon by humans.

However, his closing message from ''State of the Planet'' was forthright:

The future of life on earth depends on our ability to take action. Many individuals are doing what they can, but real success can only come if there's a change in our societies and our economics and in our politics. I've been lucky in my lifetime to see some of the greatest spectacles that the natural world has to offer. Surely we have a responsibility to leave for future generations a planet that is healthy, inhabitable by all species.

Attenborough has subsequently become more vocal in his support of environmental causes. In 2005 and 2006, he backed a BirdLife International project to stop the killing of albatross by longline fishing boats. He gave public support to WWF's campaign to have 220,000 square kilometres of Borneo's rainforest designated a protected area. He also serves as a vice-president of BTCV, vice-president of Fauna and Flora International, president of Butterfly Conservation and president of Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. In 2003 he launched an appeal to create a rainforest reserve in Ecuador in memory of Christopher Parsons, the producer of ''Life on Earth'' and a personal friend, who had died the previous year. The same year, he helped to launch ARKive, a global project instigated by Parsons to gather together natural history media into a digital library. ARKive is an initiative of Wildscreen, of which Attenborough is a patron. He later became patron of the World Land Trust, and an active supporter. He supported Glyndebourne in their successful application to obtain planning permission for a wind turbine in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and gave evidence at the planning inquiry arguing in favour of the proposal.

Attenborough has repeatedly said that he considers human overpopulation to be the root cause of many environmental problems. In ''The Life of Mammals'', he made a plea for humans to curb population growth so that other species will not be crowded out. In 2009, he became a patron of Population Matters, (formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust), a UK charity advocating sustainable human populations.

He has written and spoken publicly about the fact that, despite past scepticism, he believes the Earth's climate is warming in a way that is cause for concern, and that this can likely be attributed to human activity. He summed up his thoughts at the end of his 2006 documentary "Can We Save Planet Earth?" as follows:

In the past, we didn't understand the effect of our actions. Unknowingly, we sowed the wind and now, literally, we are reaping the whirlwind. But we no longer have that excuse: now we do recognise the consequences of our behaviour. Now surely, we must act to reform it — individually and collectively, nationally and internationally — or we doom future generations to catastrophe.

In a 2005 interview with ''BBC Wildlife'' magazine, Attenborough said he considered George W. Bush to be the era's top "environmental villain". In 2007, he further elaborated on the USA's consumption of energy in relation to its population. When asked if he thought America to be "the villain of the piece", he responded:

I don't think whole populations are villainous, but Americans are just extraordinarily unaware of all kinds of things. If you live in the middle of that vast continent, with apparently everything your heart could wish for just because you were born there, then why worry? [...] If people lose knowledge, sympathy and understanding of the natural world, they're going to mistreat it and will not ask their politicians to care for it.

Religion and creationism

In a December 2005 interview with Simon Mayo on BBC Radio Five Live, Attenborough stated that he considers himself an agnostic. When asked whether his observation of the natural world has given him faith in a creator, he generally responds with some version of this story, making reference to the ''Loa loa'' parasitic worm:

My response is that when Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instance hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's going to make him blind. And [I ask them], 'Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you also say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child's eyeball? Because that doesn't seem to me to coincide with a God who's full of mercy'.

He has explained that he feels the evidence all over the planet clearly shows evolution to be the best way to explain the diversity of life, and that "as far as I'm concerned, if there is a supreme being then he chose organic evolution as a way of bringing into existence the natural world."

In a BBC Four interview with Mark Lawson, Attenborough was asked if he at any time had any religious faith. He replied simply, "No." He has also said "It never really occurred to me to believe in God".

In 2002, Attenborough joined an effort by leading clerics and scientists to oppose the inclusion of creationism in the curriculum of UK state-funded independent schools which receive private sponsorship, such as the Emmanuel Schools Foundation. In 2009, Attenborough stated that the Book of Genesis, by saying that the world was there for people to dominate, had taught generations that they can "dominate" the environment, and that this has resulted in the devastation of vast areas of the environment. Attenborough further explained to the science journal ''Nature'', "That's why Darwinism, and the fact of evolution, is of great importance, because it is that attitude which has led to the devastation of so much, and we are in the situation that we are in."

Also in early 2009, the BBC broadcast an Attenborough one-hour special, ''Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life''. In reference to the programme, Attenborough stated that "People write to me that evolution is only a theory. Well, it is not a theory. Evolution is as solid a historical fact as you could conceive. Evidence from every quarter. What is a theory is whether natural selection is the mechanism and the only mechanism. That is a theory. But the historical reality that dinosaurs led to birds and mammals produced whales, that's not theory." He strongly opposes creationism and its offshoot "intelligent design", saying that a survey that found a quarter of science teachers in state schools believe that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in science lessons was "really terrible".

In March 2009, Attenborough appeared on ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross''. Attenborough stated that he felt evolution did not rule out the existence of a God and accepted the title of agnostic saying, "My view is: I don't know one way or the other but I don't think that evolution is against a belief in God."

BBC and public service broadcasting

Attenborough is a lifelong supporter of the BBC, public broadcasting and the television licence. He has said:

PSB, to me, is not about selecting individual programme strands here or there, financing them from some outside source and then foisting them upon commercial networks. Public Service Broadcasting, watched by a healthy number of viewers, with programmes financed in proportion to their intrinsic needs and not the size of the audience, can only effectively operate as a network — a network whose aim is to cater for the broadest possible range of interests, popular as well as less popular, a network that measures its success not only by its audience size but by the range of its schedule.

Public service broadcasting is one of the things that distinguishes this country and makes me want to live here. I have spent all my life in it. I would be very distressed if public service broadcasting was weakened. I have been at the BBC since 1952, and know the BBC is constantly being battered. It is today.

If you could demonstrate that the BBC was grossly extravagant there might be a case for saying OK take it away. But in fact the BBC per minute in almost every category is as cheap as you can find anywhere in the world and produces the best quality. If you take the money away, which part of the BBC will you remove? The BBC has gone through swingeing staff cuts. It has been cut to the bone, if you divert licence fee money elsewhere, you cut quality and services. There is always that threat from politicians who will say your licence fee is up for grabs. We will take it. There is a lot of people who want to see the BBC weakened. They talk of this terrible tax of the licence fee. Yet it is the best bargain that is going. Four radio channels and god knows how many TV channels. It is piffling.

There have always been politicians or business people who have wanted to cut the BBC back or stop it saying the sort of things it says. There's always been trouble about the licence and if you dropped your guard you could bet our bottom dollar there'd be plenty of people who'd want to take it away. The licence fee is the basis on which the BBC is based and if you destroy it, broadcasting... becomes a wasteland.

Attenborough expressed regret at some of the changes made to the BBC in the 1990s by Director-General John Birt, who introduced an internal market at the corporation, slimmed and even closed some departments and outsourced much of the corporation’s output to private production companies, in line with the Broadcasting Act 1990. He has said:

There is no question but that Birtism . . . has had some terrible results. On the other hand, the BBC had to change. Now it has to produce programmes no one else can do. Otherwise, forget the licence fee.

The Bristol Unit has suffered along with the rest of the BBC from recent staff cuts. Yet it remains confident in the belief that the BBC will maintain it, in spite of the vagaries of fashion, because the Corporation believes that such programmes deserve a place in the schedules of any broadcaster with pretensions of providing a Public Service. In due course, similar specialist Units were also established in London, in order to produce programmes on archaeology and history, on the arts, on music and on science. They too, at one time, had their successes. But they have not survived as well as the Unit in Bristol. The statutory requirement that a certain percentage of programmes must come from independent producers has reduced in-house production and the Units necessarily shrank proportionately in size. As they dwindled, so the critical mass of their production expertise has diminished. The continuity of their archives has been broken, they have lost the close touch they once had worldwide with their subjects and they are no longer regarded internationally as the centres of innovation and expertise that they once were.

When Birt gets up and says the whole of the BBC was a creative mess and it was wasteful, I never saw any evidence of that. I absolutely know it wasn’t so in my time. Producers now spend all their time worrying about money, and the thing has suffered for it.

In 2008, he criticised the BBC’s television schedules:

I have to say that there are moments when I wonder — moments when its two senior networks, first set up as a partnership, schedule simultaneously programmes of identical character, thereby contradicting the very reason that the BBC was given a second network. Then there are times when both BBC One and BBC Two, intoxicated by the sudden popularity of a programme genre, allow that genre to proliferate and run rampant through the schedules. The result is that other kinds of programmes are not placed, simply because of a lack of space. Do we really require so many gardening programmes, make-over programmes or celebrity chefs? Is it not a scandal in this day and age, that there seems to be no place for continuing series of programmes about science or serious music or thoughtful in-depth interviews with people other than politicians?

In 2009, Attenborough commented on the general state of British television, describing the newly introduced product placement on commercial television as something he considered an "appalling" idea 20 years earlier:

I think it's in great trouble. The whole system on which it was built — a limited number of networks, with adequate funding — is under threat. That funding is no longer there. As stations proliferate, so audiences are reduced. The struggle for audiences becomes ever greater, while money diminishes. I think that's a fair recipe for trouble. Inevitably, this has an impact on the BBC … Fortunately, the BBC doesn't think natural history programmes must compete with ''Strictly Come Dancing'' in terms of audience. The BBC says, 'Make proper, responsible natural history programmes.'

Other causes

In May 2005, Attenborough was appointed as patron of the UK's Blood Pressure Association, which provides information and support to people with hypertension.

Attenborough is also an honorary member of BSES Expeditions, a youth development charity that operates challenging scientific research expeditions to remote wilderness environments.

Parodies and artistic portrayals

Attenborough's accent and hushed, excited delivery have been the subject of frequent parodies by comedians, most notably Spike Milligan, Marty Feldman and ''The Goodies''. Attenborough is portrayed by Michael Palin in the final episode of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', where he searches the African jungle for the legendary Walking Tree of Dahomey (''Quercus Nicholas Parsonus''), sweating excessively and accompanied by native guides wearing saxophones. David Attenborough has also been parodied in a series of GEICO insurance commercials, showing a nature show host, clearly patterned on Attenborough.

"Time Flies", a sketch by David Ives, features a pair of anthropomorphic mayflies engaging in a courtship ritual, while watching themselves on television in a documentary narrated by David Attenborough.

The character of Nigel Thornberry, a nature documentarian on Nickelodeon's The Wild Thornberrys is strongly influenced by Attenborough.

He has also been parodied by the Australia 1980s sketch show The Comedy Company where Ian McFadyen portrays a character called David Rabbitborough.

The video game ''Discworld'', based on the series of books by Terry Pratchett, parodies his unique delivery to explain different aspects of the Discworld Universe, such as L-Space.

Mythbusters host Adam Savage often imitates Attenborough when speaking about his co-host Jamie Hyneman, which Jamie verified in the YouTube Special Episode.

Filmography

Attenborough is known foremost for writing and presenting the ten ''Life'' series, which are presented in chronological order below:

''Life on Earth'' (1979)

''The Living Planet'' (1984)

''The Trials of Life'' (1990)

''Life in the Freezer'' (1993)

''The Private Life of Plants'' (1995)

''The Life of Birds'' (1998)

''The Life of Mammals'' (2002)

''Life in the Undergrowth'' (2005)

''Life in Cold Blood'' (2008)

''First Life'' (2010)

His voice is synonymous with wildlife documentaries for British audiences, and the principal series with which his narration is associated include:

''Wildlife on One'' (1977–2005)

''BBC Wildlife Specials'' (1995–2008)

''The Blue Planet'' (2001)

''Planet Earth'' (British version) (2006)

''Nature's Great Events'' (2009)

''Life (2009)

''The Frozen Planet'' (2011) (in production)

Books

Bibliography

''Zoo Quest to Guyana'' (Lutterworth Press, 1956)

''Zoo Quest for a Dragon'' (Lutterworth Press, 1957)

* (book club edition with 85 extra pages, ''Quest for the Paradise Birds'', 1959)

''Zoo Quest in Paraguay'' (Lutterworth Press, 1959)

* paperback (Penguin Books, 1982)

''Quest in Paradise'' (1960)

''People of Paradise'' (Harper & Brothers, 1960)

''Zoo Quest to Madagascar'' (1961)

''Quest Under Capricorn'' (1963)

''Fabulous Animals'' (BBC, 1975) ISBN 0-563-17006-9

''The Tribal Eye'' (1976)

''Life on Earth'' (1979)

''Discovering Life on Earth'' (1981)

''Journeys to the past: Travels in New Guinea, Madagascar, and the northern territory of Australia'' (1983) Penguin Books ISBN 0-14-00.64133

''The Living Planet'' (1984)

''The First Eden: The Mediterranean World and Man'' (1987)(Little Brown & Co (T); 1st American ed edition (March 1990))

''The Atlas of the Living World'' (1989)

''The Trials of Life'' (Collins, 1990) ISBN 0-00-219912-2

''The Private Life of Plants'' (BBC Books, 1994) ISBN 0-563-37023-8

''The Life of Birds'' (BBC Books, 1998) ISBN 0-563-38792-0

''The Life of Mammals'' (BBC Books, 2002) ISBN 0-563-53423-0

''Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster'' (autobiography; 2002) ISBN 0-563-53461-3

* paperback: ISBN 0-563-48780-1

* updated edition: ISBN 9781846076527

''Life in the Undergrowth'' (BBC Books, 2005) ISBN 0-563-52208-9

''Amazing Rare Things - The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery'' with Susan Owens, Martin Clayton and Rea Alexandratos (The Royal Collection, 2007) Hardback - ISBN 978-1-902163-46-8; Softback - ISBN 978-1-902163-99-4

''Life in Cold Blood'' (BBC Books, 2007) ISBN 9780563539223

''Life Stories'', (HarperCollins Publishers, 2009) ISBN 9780007338832

''New Life Stories'', (Collins, 2011) ISBN 9780007425129

Introductions

Attenborough has written the introduction or foreword for a number of books, including:

''African Jigsaw: A Musical Entertainment'', Peter Rose and Anne Conlon (published: 1986, Weinberger)

''Tomorrow Is Too Late'', Various (The Macmillan Press, 1990)

''Life in the Freezer: Natural History of the Antarctic'', Alastair Fothergill (BBC Books, 1993), ISBN 0-563-36431-9

''Birds of Paradise: Paradisaeidae'' (Bird Families of the World series) Clifford B. Frith, Bruce M. Beehler, William T. Cooper (Illustrator) (Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0-19-854853-2

''The Blue Planet'', Andrew Byatt, Alastair Fothergill, Martha Holmes (BBC Books, 2001) ISBN 0-563-38498-0.

''Light on the Earth'' (BBC Books, 2005), two decades of winning images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, ISBN 0-563-52260-7

''Planet Earth'', Alastair Fothergill (BBC Books, 2006), ISBN 0-563-52212-7

Audio recordings

''Tarka the Otter'' by Henry Williamson (available on audiocassette, 1978)

''Yanomamo'' (musical entertainment, 1983) by Peter Rose and Anne Conlon; on-stage narration and published audio recording

''Ocean World'' (musical entertainment, 1990) by Peter Rose and Anne Conlon; on-stage narration (including at The Royal Festival Hall), for audio recording and video broadcast (both published)

''Peter and the Wolf'' for BBC Music Magazine (free CD with the June 2000 issue).

In addition, Attenborough has recorded some of his own works in audiobook form, including ''Life on Earth'', ''Zoo Quest for a Dragon'' and his autobiography ''Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster''.

References

External links

BBC Books David Attenborough website

BBC ''Life on Air'' website

BBC biography

Wildfilmhistory.org biography

BBC interviews with Attenborough in 1976 and 1998

PBS interview with Attenborough in 1998

A Life in TV: Sir David Attenborough, BAFTA

BBC Wildlife Finder - David Attenborough's favourite moments

Tribute from the World Land Trust

Category:1926 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge Category:Alumni of University College London Category:BBC Two controllers Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Category:English agnostics Category:English conservationists Category:English environmentalists Category:English television personalities Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Category:Fellows of the Zoological Society of London Category:Kalinga Prize recipients Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Members of the Linnean Society of London Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Category:Members of the Order of Merit Category:People associated with the University of Leicester Category:People from Leicester Category:People from London Category:Presenters of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures Category:British Book Award winners

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