Dancing with the Birds review - the avian equivalent of Strictly Come Dancing (without the curse)

Strictly Birds Dancing, anyone? Dancing with the Birds (Netflix) saw handsome males busting their best moves, while female “judges” watched with beady eyes. If the choreography scored highly, a showmance might ensue. Happily, these ones wouldn’t be described as a “curse”, break up any marriages or attract lurid tabloid headlines.

From the team behind Netflix’s Our Planet, this 50-minute film followed Birds-of-paradise as they staged endearingly elaborate courtship displays to attract mates.

In the jungles of New Guinea, the King of Saxony (a bird, not an athletic monarch) swung seductively on a vine and waved his huge head feathers like an avian version of Rapunzel’s hair. A black sicklebill proudly puffed out his plumage, while a twelve-wired bird of paradise wiggled his rump to flick his amour’s face. Ooh, you big tease.

Size was everything for MacGregor’s bowerbird, whose metre-tall tower was a seven-year labour of love, decorated with baubles and dried flowers to appear extra festive. When a bush pig tried to vandalise it, the bird did an uncanny impression of a barking dog to scare it away – before running through his full mimicry repertoire, which included remarkable approximations of villagers talking and children playing.

A flame bowerbird winked at a female while striking matador poses. In Guyana, a posse of hi-vis orange cock-of-the-rocks staged a display that resembled a feathered stag party.

It was ravishingly photographed, with citrus-coloured birds zinging against the lush forest greens. Stephen Fry narrated in velveteen tones, occasionally chucking in yoofspeak with references to “bling” and “guns” (meaning muscles rather than weaponry).

The anthropomorphic commentary, jaunty music and on-screen chapter headings verged on whimsical, but it was impossible to resist the charms of these romantic raptors. In a rousing climactic sequence, a Carola’s parotia performed his painstakingly rehearsed, nine-phase dance. If the female had a Glitterball trophy, she would surely have awarded it. Instead, a spot of mating sufficed.