Birdman Productions was founded in 1992 by Tim Barksdale. He began in Columbia, MO as a dba/Birdman Videos and survived on small grants until he picked up several clients - notably The Missouri Department of Conservation. Soon, he had small accounts with 4 states purchasing footage and was producing an introductory piece to the wildlife of one conservation area.
But everything changed in the fall of 1993 as Tim visited the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. Tim was exposed for the first time to higher quality cameras and was able to meet so many amazing film-makers including Sir David Attenborough. Soon, he was shooting with a Betacam BVW-400A, By December 1995, he had purchased a 16x9 Digital Betacam (a DVW-700WS) after falling in love with the cinematic widescreen look. 2 years with Animal Planet/ Discovery and specials with CBS, Paramount Productions and others changed everything again. In 1999, Tim was a final judge at the International Wildlife Film Festival and later in the year moved to Missoula, Montana.
In 2000, he moved to the east side of the mountains where the tiny town of Choteau was located only 6 miles from the Freezeout Lake WMA and 12 miles from the base of the Rocky Mountain Front. That fall at Wildscreen in Bristol, England, he ran into delegates of Cornell University's renowned Laboratory of Ornithology. That meeting began a 7 year relationship taking him to Alaska, Hawaii, Cuba with many US states also; and the sale of the first 10 years of the Birdman Library.
By 2006, Tim was filming in Guatemala, Arctic Canada, Kansas, Ecuador and Argentina preparing for an international television series for PBS. Texas, Brazil, Colorado, Alaska, Ecuador, Missouri, Canada, Florida, and Minnesota in 2007. Then after starting another show on Greater Prairie Chickens, the recession hit.
A native of St. Louis, Tim has been a birder and conservationist since childhood. His degree is in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation (1978 - Northwest Missouri State University). During the 1980's, Tim spent over 6 years with a bank, surviving 2 mergers. But among the learning experiences of the various careers since 1971, nothing ever felt like "home" until he began filming birds and wildlife in 1992.
Because saving birds and the habitat which they live within and above is so important - we knew that sharing our passion for birds was important to accomplishing this mission. It automatically followed that we needed to effect people deeply. We needed to wake up the hundreds around us to the increasing peril to the Natural World - because we are interdependent with and upon all living species. Sharing the beauty which we find in our journey is critical to our mission while inspiring and arousing our love of this earth.