January 6, 2021
“Consider the hummingbird for a long moment. A hummingbird’s heart beats ten times a second. A hummingbird’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser. A hummingbird’s heart is a lot of the hummingbird. (They are) joyas voladoras, flying jewels…”
–Brian Doyle
I recently saw a photograph online that took my breath away. It was a hummingbird, hovering as they do, backlit by the sun. All the colors of the rainbow were reflected in its tiny feathers. As these dizzyingly fast miniature creatures are very hard to spot, much less to snap a picture of, this gorgeous shot seems miraculous.