I realise that "you can too" is ignoring things like health and wealth, and I did worry about that; as ever, the need to make the title clickable, but short and honest, is a bit of a battle. And also, to be clear, this isn't an advert: I paid for my flight and my camera operator's flight!

The passion that Frenchman has for his birds is admirable. His dedication is amazing

How in the world do you manage to make such consistently compelling videos with massively different themes and experiences each time? It's insane.

This video brought back strong memories of a movie from my childhood, "Fly Away Home", which was inspired by the life of Bill Lishman, a Canadian sculptor who did something similar.

Wow. As a glider pilot I'm used to flying with birds from time to time, but, wow. This is just a whole other level of intimacy with these amazing animals. Amazing.

Being able to pet the birds mid flight must've been a magical feeling..

I really like it when interviews are done in the interviewee's native language. Please keep doing that, Tom

i fully support this frenchman taking tourists out with these birds to fund his conservation efforts. what a hero

As someone who took 4 years of U.S. Highschool French, but is still getting familiar with the language, his French was so easy to follow and understand, super articulate. Very awesome video also!

Until now I never realized how little flapping is needed to keep a bird in the air. In human terms, it's like imagining that one would need to run in order to cover distances when in reality you can simply walk from point A to point B. That gets the job done. I thought this because from the ground we can only watch birds take off and in order to get to flight, that's where the big flaps come in. But the minute you are settled in the sky, you don't need to give off that much power. I guess this is why some birds can cover hundreds of miles in a day.

As a former hang glider pilot, ultralight pilot, microlight pilot and paraglider pilot, this video really strikes home. I've never had the luck to fly with a bird, but perhaps as close as one can get to fly like a bird, especially the unpowered versions. This video brings tears to my eyes.

I remember watching a film about a family who raised geese and taught them to fly using a glider when I was young. I think it was called fly away home. I wonder if this guy was part of the inspiration.

Tom, thank you for keeping the original French with subtitles rather than dubbing - I find it preferable to listen or read to the original language!

As a kid and obsessed with all things aviation, I loved the movie “Fly Away Home”. This guy is the real deal of that movie.

Started listening to this while doing something else, didn't even realize it was in two languages until I looked and saw subtitles (fluent in both). Funny how the mind works sometimes.

That moment when those birds were redirected from a pilot to another was amaazing - it shows an amazing feat of trust and intimacy of the birds with the pilots. It's just amazing how they could do that automatically, without much 'orders' and with an animal not usually being a pet!

These things are honestly hugely cool to me. It’s kind of reminiscent of some of those very first flying designs from centuries ago, with that vague idea that it actually feels like you are flying, rather than getting into a machine that does.

This is in France?! *books tickets immediately* Incredible video Tom. What an experience, and what spectacular footage! p.s. congratulations on the 5m subscribers that you're about to hit as I type this

Actually, the relationship with birds in the air goes even deeper than that this very special, very close relationship with the birds in this video. I am a paraglider pilot and when we fly in thermals with birds, we follow the same traffic rules. We see the birds - usually birds of prey, but also sea gulls and the like - as pilots, and they see us a pilots. Sometimes you can come up a litttle to close to a wild bird and they will let you know that you are too close. Or they will just fly away. But birds don't normally see us a threat in the air. If you can fly, then you are a bird. I don't believe most birds like to be touched the way you do, though. That's probably just because these particular geese are somewhat domesticated.

This was seriously mind-blowing. I expected some goof chasing birds around. This was an entirely different level of experience that I had no idea was even possible. I had a huge smile on my face throughout the whole video and I wasn’t even flying.

Watching Tom reach out to gently pet the birds brings me so much joy (:

3:00 One takes for granted that flying is "just what birds do." Watching them in flight up close, from an as-literal-as-possible bird's-eye view, renews one's appreciation of both the mechanics of flight, and of the long and meticulous path that evolution has taken and continues to take. Thanks, Tom! :D

I remember hearing about this guy decades ago-- I'm really glad he's still around and still doing this!

FLY AWAY HOME WAS MY FAVOURITE MOVIE AS A KID AND YOU'RE TELLING ME I CAN DO THIS FOR REAL????? You are literally living my dream Tom

Tom Scott never disappoints

Tom Scott is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.

This is VERY reminiscent of the film "Fly Away Home," a father-daughter pair work together to raise a flock of Canadian Geese in the same way this gentleman does here. Very awesome to have a real-life comparison to the film I spent time watching as a kid.

I love when you cover people who speaks languages I've tried learning, as I can choose not to look at the subtitles mostly but as I am learning a fully new topic, I end up learning new words like "gosling" and "micro light aircraft" . Hope to see more from France, Italy, Czechia or one day China or Japan

This is amazing it’s incredible how people can dedicate there lives to helping animals that most wouldn’t even bat an eye to.

Tom brought the “I believe I can fly” philosophy to a whole other level

This is literally one of the coolest things you’ve covered, Tom.

Its people like this that make me realise that humanity still has a change, simply heartwarming.

To be able to touch a bird that’s in flight? Incredible! Those close ups of them in flight were amazing!

They turned "Fly away home" into a real thing

As a French person, it's really a pleasure to listen to a Tom Scott video with some parts in my mother tongue.

What a legend. If only more people had this level of respect and compassion for animals. Liberté, égalité, fraternité.

Wow, that seems like an incredible experience, and a genuinely cool conservation/outreach program.

There was a movie in the 90's I think it was called "Fly Away Home" that was about this

"I don't see how anyone could object to this." -Tom Scott "Hold my beer." -PETA

Honestly im crying. To see such a passionate person spend his life preserving the birds generations

"Someone" I noticed is almost at 5M Subscribers this video will hopefully tip the tide on that huge milestone

It started kind of weird with letting birds out on the runway, but turned into such an wholesome story!

Wholesome goodness embodied.

If I ever find myself in France, I'd love to experience this!!! I'm so intrigued by birds and I'm currently learning French so this is like a dream for me :)

I was just waiting in my subscriptions menu, ready to start watching at the exact moment that this was uploaded. That's how much I love Tom Scott's videos!

What an incredible guy.

Tom has a dream, wakes up and decides to reenact it

This may be my favorite video you've done (and that's really saying something, since you make consistently interesting and awesome videos!) You looked so happy being able to fly the birds and and pet them mid-flight!

I love this guys video's. Shows us some amazing things that most of us will never get to experience. Think this might be my favourite so far though.

Merci Tom de ne pas avoir utilisé de doublage. J'aime mieux les voix originale avec sous titres qu'un doublage par dessus.

Of all the things Tom has done, you can see it in his face that this one was quite special.

the birds squawking at the end is very wholesome

Fascinating as always Tom. Congrats on the imminent 5m subs! Cheers, and here's to many more years of you tubing, I hope.

Tom, this was genuinely touching. I honestly wish I could go do something like this, to experience flight in this way and experience the joy of being with the birds. Thank you for highlighting this man's story and the possibilities in the world.

What a fabulous guy! He saw what needed to be done and did it. He didn't wait for someone else to fix the problem he could see right in front of him. That he cared enough about those birds to go to such lengths to protect their future just amazes me.

I've wanted to do this ever since watching Fly Away Home as a kid!

I feel like I just watched the sequel to Fly Away Home. Great stuff as always!

This is just so wholesome. He’s committed so much of his life to helping these birds - I’ve never seen anything quite like this. Just so, so cool.

Nobody has ever looked more like a french microlight pilot than this guy

Granting the gift of flight to so many around the world. Truly a noble Frenchman

Reminds me of the film _Fly Away Home._

Love your videos Tom, thanks for being an inspiration to me!

Let's not overlook the fact this dude didn't merely start doing it solely for the fun of it, but to help guide them on new migratory routes(?) to help reintroduce them to an area where they went extinct. I genuinely have no idea if anyone else has done something similar, but that is frankly amazing.

This is probably one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. Thanks Tom.

That is really cool, and it is amazing that a person can become a generational guardian for birds like this.

I remember watching a film about this (or at least something similar) at the French theme park Futuroscope a few years ago. One interesting thing that they did with that film is they used two IMAX screens, one in front of you and one below you, to give you the feeling of flying with the birds.

I used to love a video called "C'mon Geese" by Bill Lishman, who pioneered the practice of imprinting a guiding geese in Canada.

Tom Scott is living the life! And that guy's passion to dedicate his life to helping these geese is very inspiring.

The only worry I have is how the constant loud noise of an aircraft right next to them might affect the birds, I imagine that's very hard to study, but if it's helping the birds form safer migration routes and saving them from extinction it's almost definitely worth it. It's also very cool.

French Billy Connolly seems like a cool dude.

my guy literally speaks fluent bird. amazing.

This whole thing reminds me somewhat of an old film called "fly away home"

Just incredible. Tom, I like all your videos, but this is simply phenomenal. So cool!!

Tom you have an extraordinary life, appreciate it 🕊

This is one of the most amazing and heartwarming things I've seen this year.

I think this has to be the most magical of all your videos, Tom.

Birds: "Is that Tom Scott?"

Spectacular display! We're used to thinking of humanity as separate from nature, but this proves how close we really are to animals.

Absolutely incredible!!! Thank you for sharing, Tom!!!

This video made me physically smile in amazement, after watching a human extending his hand and gently touching a bird in mid-flight. It's surreal.

I'm rarely speechless but for 6 minutes I sat with an open mouth and could barely believe what I saw!

Tom really lives an interesting life meanwhile me...

What an amazing guy!!

The translator did an amazing job, the translation is really accurate

Fly away home Tom, Fly away home

At so many points, it looks like something out of a Ghibli film. Aircraft and passionate dedicatipn and connecting to nature.

This video made my morning. Thank you Tom, as always

Those are some cool looking birds! I'm glad people care about saving them.

Came here thinking it'd be a gimmick about flying with trained birds, absolutely did not expect someone literally trying to save a species by redirecting them along a safer route. Never thought I'd be in awe of a Frenchman, but here we are.

I saw a movie like this, called "Fly Away Home."

Tom thank you so much for maiking great videos with great people

Tom went from being in a cave underground and now flying with birds, next up Tom on the ISS.

This is just like the movie "Fly Away Home".

I have to imagine that you need a big (in relative terms) two-person aircraft like that because the passenger has to be replaced by fuel and supplies for the longer flights. I would wonder about the logistics of supplying en-route, because setting down for gas at even small airfields with a flock of birds in formation would be a recipe for bird strikes.

Tom you bring us such unique and amazing things that happen in this glorious world of ours. So close to 5 million subscribers too. Well-deserved.

I got goosebumps. One of the best vids Ive seen in Yt. Thanks Tom.

I swear this is literally the plot of fly away home...except his mum didn't die at the start of the video.

Très bien!

Another amazing video Tom, you are getting to do and see things we would all love to try. Thanks for sharing these experiences. Touching a bird in flight has to be up there as a unique experience.

Every video is an experience, Thank you Tom.