This is Bird Note.

Seeing the earth from above, out of an airplane window, or from the top of a skyscraper,

has a sublime beauty.

While today, you can just load up Google Maps.

In the early 20th century, almost no one had seen a bird's eye view of the world.

But in 1907, Dr. Julius Neubröner, a German pharmacist who

used carrier pigeons to deliver medicine, invented the pigeon camera. It was a small camera

strapped to a pigeon's breast, like a photographic baby Bjorn. A timer let the camera take multiple snapshots

throughout the bird's flight. This allowed for some of the earliest aerial photography,

and even seemed promising for military reconnaissance. But the pigeon's photos are rather chaotic,

haphazardly framed, sometimes partially obscured by their wings, and you can't

exactly tell a pigeon what you want a photo of. With rapid advancements in airplanes, the pigeon

camera faded away. Still, these photos have a haunting beauty. Looking at people the size of ants amid toy-like buildings,

there's a sense that we're glimpsing something beyond what humans could have imagined.

And no matter how many times we've seen a view like that,

it can still take our breath away.

See some of these photos at our website,

birdnote.org.

I'm Mark Bramhill.