by Wildlife Artist Lindsey Kiser
2026, Lindsey Kiser, “Sweet Treat”, scratchboard, ink and iridescent watercolor, 6″ x 6″, framed to 7.5″ x 7.5″, available.
Hummingbirds are a gift! The more I learn about hummingbirds, the more I am delighted.
Aren’t their iridescent feathers incredible? The iridescence is caused by microbubbles in the structure of the feathers, not from pigment.
Wouldn’t you like to fly like a Top Gun fighter pilot? I know I would!
Did you know that the parents leave their nesting grounds a few weeks before their young do? The parents double their weight before taking the arduous flight back to Mexico or central America. The offspring, who have never made this journey before, stop at the EXACT SAME flowers their parents visited and join their parents for the winter. Isn’t that just unbelievable?
And they get to eat every 15 minutes! But there’s a good reason for this. A hummingbird’s heart rests at 400 beats per minute, but when they are flying, their heart rate is 1200 bpm! How do they not consume more calories than they collect while visiting blossoms?
And the mutual symbiosis between the native plants and the hummingbirds is just as astounding as the birds themselves. The native plants, such as coral honeysuckle, that hummingbirds pollinate while collecting nectar have long tubular structures so that bees cannot reach the nectar. Isn’t that incredible?
Everyone knows hummingbirds love red, but do you know why? Because bees are blind to the color red, and see red as green. Thus, red blossoms stand out for the hummingbirds, but are bypassed by the bees! These red tubular flowers are specifically designed to be pollinated by hummingbirds.
So, did all of this happen by chance? Or does it seem more likely that there was a Designer behind these organisms and systems?
Hummingbirds are a gift from God!
As always, I would be tickled pink for you to take home an original hummer. Please view THIS LINK to see what hummingbirds are available at this time.
COLLECT A HUMMINGBIRD ORIGINAL ARTWORK TODAY
If you enjoy learning about hummingbirds, I highly recommend the following documentaries available on Amazon Prime streaming:
(1) First Flight: A Mother Hummingbird’s Story, which is a quaint homemade documentary by a professional photographer and his wife who happened to buy a house in Las Vegas with a hummingbird’s nest on a clothes line on the back porch. It is very sweet, relatable, and informative.
(2) David Attenborough’s Hummingbirds: Jewelled Messengers, which has award-winning photography and is a resource of numerous facts, some of which I have quoted above.