Home > Work > The Hummingbirds' Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings
1 " Caught in the feathers, air gives birds their warmth and their flight; in hummingbirds, air even gives them their color. Their jewel-like radiance—emerald, ruby, amethyst—comes not from pigment, as in most birds’ feathers, but from air. "
― Sy Montgomery , The Hummingbirds' Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings
2 " You are 50 percent less likely to see a bumblebee than you were in 1974. Butterfly populations have decreased, according to one estimate, by 33 percent in the last twenty years. Three billion birds have disappeared from North American skies in the past five decades. Audubon’s Birds and Climate Change Report warns that half of all birds on our continent are at risk, "
3 " Feathers are among the most complex structural organs found in nature. Nothing of comparable dimension is stronger. They are made of keratin, the same as a human’s fingernails, a horse’s hooves, and a rhino’s horn—but the keratin in feathers, due to a difference in molecular structure, is even tougher. "
4 " typical bird’s feathers outweigh its skeleton. Feathers define a bird. By trapping and moving air, feathers protect the bird from cold and wet, and they enable it to fly. "
5 " Hummingbirds are less flesh than fairies. They are little more than bubbles fringed with iridescent feathers—air wrapped in light. "
6 " Sculpture is about process, and this process is often fragmented. In a way, our lives are like that. A lot of people have trouble with transitions, with discontinuity. But this is what makes us grow. It’s mysterious. You shift to a new platform and see things from a different perspective. Art does that. Wildlife does that. Wildlife and art reveal these transitions and demand we experience them. "
7 " In a hummingbird’s body, flight muscles account for 35 percent. An enormous heart constitutes up to 2.5 percent of its body weight "
