The internet is no stranger to the wacky bird dance. Clips of smiling (and frowning) birds-of-paradise, moonwalking manakins, and other avian wonders abound online. So when I sat down to watch Dancing with the Birds, a new Netflix documentary produced by the team behind Our Planet and narrated by the English actor Stephen Fry, I assumed it would be akin to a circus: a series of performances stitched together without much storytelling or natural history. There are more than enough avian dancers online to fill a 50-minute film. But Dancing with the Birds is more than a best-of compilation. The filmmakers introduce us to individual birds as the male dancers strive to present their best side to females watching nearby. We see not only their successes, but their failures, too, all affectionately narrated by the richly accented Fry. This approach lets us relate to the birds and their strange, idiosyncratic behaviors as they face an existential challenge: In a cacophonous forest...