Adolphe Burdet

Biography

Adolphe Burdet is known as the first Dutch maker of bird films. Between 1910 and 1940, he assembled an impressive image archive of the world of Dutch birds that consisted of stereoscopic images and films. A large portion of that archive has unfortunately been lost. Burdet made a total of approximately 65 films, the most talked-about of which is De Koekoek (circa 1918), in which he shows how a young cuckoo throws his foster mother’s eggs out of the nest. Burdet, originally Swiss, was born in Sainte Croix, in the Jura region.

He studied classical languages, and for a time was a teacher at an American missionary school in Egypt. It is there that his interest in birds began, inspired in part by his observations of how kites would pick up garbage from the streets. After a stay in London, he left for the Netherlands at the beginning of the 20th century in order to give lessons to the daughters of the Van der Vliet family. This wealthy family owned properties including Elswout and the Kennemer Dunes. Burdet married one of the Van der Vliet daughters, after which he spent the rest of his life in the Netherlands.

Together with his wife, he became involved with nature photography and film. Burdet’s hobby began with stereo photography. In 1914, his photo series ‘Vogels in ’t wild’ was published, on behalf of the Dutch Vereniging voor Natuurmonumenten  and the Vogelbescherming. According to Burdet, he made the transition to film in 1914 after being accused of trickery by a well-known French ornithologist. According to that Frenchman, Burdet had tampered with a photograph of a cuckoo. In order to prove that he had not tampered with the photographs, Burdet spent four years filming the nesting behaviour of the cuckoo. He let the birds get used to the sound of his camera by placing a device that mimicked the camera sounds in a hidden tent a few days before he began shooting.

His film De Koekoek was later included by director and producer J.C. Mol of Multifilm in the film series Wetenschap en Film and Wonderen der Natuur. Burdet never did commercial work, but instead dedicated himself to the service of education and conservation. He became good friends with teacher and biologist Jac. P. Thijsse, with whom he made the recruitment films (commissioned by Natuurmonumenten) De eerste Nederlandse vogelfilm, De fuut en de koet, and Met de filmcamera door de vogelwereld. Thijsse supplied the commentary for both of these films. A year after Burdet’s death in 1940, director Nol Binsbergen made the film Vogelleven in Holland using footage shot by Burdet and conserved by Multifilm. This film was screened in places including the Amsterdam cinema De Uitkijk.