From Spain to China, throughout Eurasia, a fabulous bird discreetly haunts the mountains. Few ornithologists examine its life. Illustrated reports about this flamboyant bird are rare. No films exist.

This documentary, a world first, sets out to fill this gap so as to enable the vast majority to finally enter into the extraordinary world of the wallcreeper. It invites you into a stony, vertical universe to share in the bird’s daily life, following it closely for an entire year as shaped by the rhythm of the days, seasons, climatic variations and meetings with its neighbours on the rock faces.

Somewhere in the Alps, around 2000m in altitude. The wallcreepers make a sudden return after wintering lower down in the valley. They are going to breed, and we will follow the nesting process from their displays to the flight of the young birds.

Why do wallcreepers return to such heights each summer? What is their secret? In fact, the reason that the wallcreeper is so original in its morphology and its habits is to live ON the rock and benefit from a fabulous manna that is inaccessible to other rock birds such as crag martins and redstarts. Millions of insects, spiders and small crustaceans live in this hostile environment. Concealed on the rock or in its cavities, they represent an enormous biomass of prey, a treasure-trove for the wallcreeper.

The nomadic and vertical habits of the butterfly-like bird guarantee it survives the winter without mishap, while its body, right to the tip of its claws, is dedicated to life on rock faces. The wallcreeper – one of nature’s marvels and an immense source of fascination for ornithologists and nature lovers.