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Outlook Weekend: Birdbrained

A schoolboy who taught two baby tawny owls to hunt, a pilot so desperate to fly like a bird that he made his own wings, and the grieving woman who turned to a hawk for comfort.

When Jonathan Franklin was a pupil at Eton, the famous British boarding school, he adopted two baby tawny owls and taught them how to hunt.

Helen Macdonald dealt with her grief after her father died by training a bird of prey - a goshawk she named Mabel.

Yves Rossy wants to swap his plane for a pair of wings. The Swiss former fighter pilot is so obsessed with birds that he has developed a winged jetpack to fly around in.

Image: Burrowing Owl
Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Mon 20 Feb 2017 02:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sun 19 Feb 2017 00:32GMT
  • Sun 19 Feb 2017 08:32GMT
  • Mon 20 Feb 2017 02:32GMT

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Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

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