Benjamin Ward

Weʼre raising £3,000 to film migratory birds in the UK with our Kenyan crew

: Creative arts and culture

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Story

House martins are among the world's most remarkable birds. They’ve adapted to coexist with people, using our busy human communities as a source of shelter and protection from nest predation. But a large part of their life remains a mystery: where they migrate to in the winter. This mystery is a central theme in our film, "Birds Beyond Borders."

From 2022 to 2024, a team in Africa set out to find, research, and film the lives of house martins and common swift wintering in Africa, with successful results. This serves as the story for "Birds Beyond Borders," following this incredible team as they document house martins and what this teaches us about climate change and habitat destruction.

The group's passion for these birds resulted in a successful research trip; however, many of the East African team members have never seen house martins nesting. The nesting habits of house martins are arguably one of the most fascinating aspects of their behavior, as they construct intricate mud nests on the sides of homes. They only nest in their northern migratory range, such as in European countries, not in Africa.

It was amazing to document these birds in Africa for the first time. I also love the idea of flipping the script and having East African filmmakers come to film wildlife in Britain. Too often, it's the other way around!" - Manu Akatsa, Cinematographer

We’ve organized this fundraiser to support our team in East Africa to come and film house martins in the UK in August 2024. We have already managed to cover flights, visas, licenses, and kit hire for the team, but we have a few outstanding costs.

This fundraiser will support the following costs, and our targets are:

Travel costs: £800

Insurance fees: £1,000

Accommodation: £1,200

Our deadline for the fundraiser is August 31st.

This final shoot with our East African crew this August will be the culmination of two years of hard work as we’ve completed about 90% of production so far.

Our film, when complete, will be used as a tool to educate people about the protection of migratory birds. House martins and swifts, in particular, are now red-listed and have declined by 50% in Western Europe in the last 20 years. We’ve partnered with the charity House Martin Conservation UK & Ireland (housemartinconservation.com) to help support the protection of these birds. Furthermore, Chris Packham has been a collaborator on the project and will also be supporting our cause as well as featuring in our film.

For more information please visit our site: birdsbeyondborders.com

Thank you!