Kids who love watching nature documentaries like Planet Earth and Life are sure to enjoy these three documentary films and series as well, and right now, they’re all FREE for Amazon Prime members to view! From big cats to killer whales, from birds of paradise to birds of prey, from enormous elephants to tiny shrews, it’s all here.
Note that because these documentaries sometimes show the harsher side of nature, they may be inappropriate for very young or sensitive children.
Life of Birds (4.75/5 stars, currently priced at $1.99 per episode for 7-day rental, all 10 episodes currently FREE for Amazon Prime members to view)
The definitive series on the most colorful, popular and perfectly adapted creatures on earth, The Life of Birds traverses the globe, covering 42 countries and examining over 300 different species. Calling upon the immense skills of many of the world’s top wildlife cameramen and women, and pushing filming technology to the limits, new behavior is brought to the screen in staggering detail. Infra-red cameras find oilbirds deep in pitch black caves. Ultra slow motion film unravels the complexities of bird flight and ultraviolet cameras reveal the world from a bird’s point of view.
Like the albatross glimpsed in the beginning of this 10-part, 5-volume series, The Life of Birds quickly takes flight. Sir David Attenborough hosts this unprecedented and extraordinary global look at the magnificent and often curious winged species with which we share our planet. Like the best wildlife shows, The Life of Birds offers a fresh and accessible view of creatures we may take for granted (didn’t Alfred Hitchcock warn us about that?). The focus of this series is not on the different bird species, but on bird behavior. Remarkable and awe-inspiring footage preserves the wide range of tools and techniques with which birds fly, hunt for food, attract a mate, hatch their chicks, and defend themselves against predators.
Series titles include: “To Fly or Not to Fly?,” “The Mastery of Flight,” “The Insatiable Appetite,” “Meat Eaters,” “Fishing for a Living,” Signals and Songs,” “Finding Partners” (the inevitable mating episode), “The Demands of the Egg,” “The Problems of Parenthood,” and “The Limits of Endurance.” One comedic diversion while watching this series is the Pythonesque (as in Monty) way in which Attenborough pops up in the most remote, most exotic locales. At one point, night-vision cameras capture the rare sight of the nocturnal kiwi as it forages for food on a New Zealand beach. The camera pans to reveal scant paces away our guide shining a flashlight on the nonplussed bird.
Blue Planet: Seas of Life (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $6.99 per episode to buy, $12.99 to buy all 8 episodes in the season, all 8 episodes currently FREE for Amazon Prime members to view)
Before creating the monumental Planet Earth, producer Alastair Fothergill and his team from the BBC put together one of the most breathtaking explorations of the world’s oceans ever assembled, The Blue Planet: Seas of Life.
The winner of two Emmy(R) Awards, The Blue Planet: Seas of Life is the definitive exploration of the marine world, chronicling the mysteries the deep in ways never before imagined.
Episode titles in the series: The Blue Planet, The Deep, Open Ocean, Frozen Seas, Seasonal Seas, Coral Seas, Tidal Seas and Coasts.
Life of Mammals (5/5 stars, all 10 episodes currently FREE for Amazon Prime members to view, Instant Video not currently available for rental or purchase, entire series also available on DVD currently priced at $40.18)
In ten parts, the award-winning David Attenborough (2002 Emmy winner for The Blue Planet: Seas of Life; The Life of Birds) introduces us to the most diverse group of animals ever to live on Earth, from the smallest – the two-inch pygmy shrew, to the largest – the blue whale; from the slowest – the sloth, to the swiftest – the cheetah; from the least attractive – the naked mole rat, to the most irresistible – a human baby.
The Life of Mammals is the story of 4,000 species that have outlived the dinosaurs and conquered the farthest places on earth.
With bodies kept warm by thick coats of fur and their developing young protected and nourished within their bodies, they have managed to colonize every part of the globe, dry or wet, hot or cold. Their adaptations for finding food have also had a profound effect on the way they move, socialize, mate and breed.
Episode titles in the series: A Winning Design, Insect Hunters, Plant Predators, Chisellers, Meat Eaters, Opportunists, Return to the Water, Life in the Trees, The Social Climbers and Food For Thought.
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If insects and reptiles are more your kids’ thing, also consider these additional David Attenborough documentaries from his Life series (not currently part of the Prime Instant Video catalog):
Attenborough: Life in the Under Growth (5/5 stars, currently priced at $1.99 per episode to buy, $7.99 to buy all 5 episodes in the series, also available on DVD currently priced at $29.99)
Just over 400 million years ago creatures left the seas to move onto land. They were the invertebrates. Since then they have become the most successful group of animals, adapting to every environment on earth. Now, for every human there are 200 million of them. Their largely unseen world is now revealed as David Attenborough tells the story of the land-living invertebrates.
By getting up close and personal with Life in the Undergrowth, this extraordinary BBC series sets a new standard of excellence in wildlife cinematography. Hosted by veteran nature expert David Attenborough and utilizing the latest advances in macrophotography, the five-part series is dedicated to bugs of all shapes and sizes, from microscopic gnats to cave-dwelling millipedes so large they can capture bats in mid-flight and feast for hours thereafter!
The patience involved in filming such previously unseen marvels must have been grueling (as confirmed by producer Mike Salisbury in a splendid bonus interview), but the results are nothing less than astonishing, with a parade of sequences so impressive that even insect-haters will pause in amazement. With an emphasis on reproduction and mating behaviors, each program focuses on a different, generalized group of creatures, many of them never filmed before, so that lay-persons and entomologists will be equally enlightened by discoveries made in the process of filming.
Episode titles: Invasion of the Land, Taking to the Air, The Silk Spinners, Intimate Relations (about insects with symbiotic relationships to plants and other insect species) and Supersocieties (about hive insects).
Attenborough: Life in Cold Blood (5/5 stars, currently priced at $1.99 per episode to buy, $7.99 to buy all 5 episodes in the series, also available on DVD currently priced at $27.98)
Written and presented by David Attenborough, Life in Cold Blood tells the epic story of the most enduringly successful animals ever to walk on land – reptiles and amphibians.
The very latest technology enables extraordinary and previously unseen behavior to be captured in intimate detail, overturning the myth that cold blooded life is slow, solitary and primitive, and revealing these creatures to be as dramatic, social, sophisticated and passionate as warm blooded animals.
Reptiles and amphibians are as dramatic in combat, colorful in their communication and tender in their parental care as other animals. They also live their lives on a totally different time scale and harness their energy from the sun.
As with Life in the Undergrowth, this series will change the audience’s perceptions forever – giving them a new, warm-hearted relationship with Life in Cold Blood. With this series, David Attenborough completes his overview of life on the planet.
Episode titles: The Cold-Blooded Truth, Invaders of the Land, Dragons of the Dry, Sophisticated Serpents and Armored Giants.