What I am interested in with birds, just as I am with spiders or monkeys, is what they do and why they do it.

I would love to go and see the Himalayan Mountain Kingdoms. There are very few left now. I would loved to have gone to Tibet and Nepal. And there are still parts of central Asia that are utterly unexplored.

Its about cherishing the woodland at the bottom of your garden or the stream that runs through it. It affects every aspect of life.

Birds were flying from continent to continent long before we were. They reached the coldest place on Earth, Antarctica, long before we did. They can survive in the hottest of deserts. Some can remain on the wing for years at a time. They can girdle the globe. Now, we have taken over the earth and the sea and the sky, but with skill and care and knowledge, we can ensure that there is still a place on Earth for birds in all their beauty and variety - if we want to... And surely, we should.

People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.

You know, it is a terrible thing to appear on television, because people think that you actually know what you're talking about.

I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.