Better than a drone? Watch this fascinating 360 video mounted to an eagle

What do you do to obtain aerial footage in an area where drones are banned? You mount a camera to a bird of prey, of course.

If you want to get some aerial footage of one of the most famous castles on the planet, but you don't have the budget for a helicopter, and drones are banned in the area, what can you do? Well, if your name is Paul Kilmer, you simply attach a camera to a bird of prey.

Okay, that is a bit simplistic, and Paul is in fact a falconry expert, and the footage is as much about the bird as it is about the scenery. The castle in question is Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, more famously known as the inspiration for the Disney logo.

Paul has been working with birds of prey since he was 13, and has worked as an animal trainer for movies and television for 20 years. With the latest cameras offering the quality that they do in an incredibly lightweight body, they allow the bird to fly comfortably and naturally whilst recording fascinating footage with full stability.

We've seen cameras mounted to birds of prey before, of course. The BBC's wildlife unit often did such things, but with much older technology. A 360 camera offers unique advantages over the sorts of devices traditionally used like this. Stability is the main factor, but so is the ultra-wide FOV, which gives a full sense of the surrounding, as well as making the bird itself clear to see.

Enjoy the video below.