Precious jewels face extinction
No family of birds has captivated the English language quite like hummingbirds.
Everything from the cosmos to the Earth’s geological wonders have inspired the names given to these beautiful birds that dazzle brighter than any star or gemstone.
The glittering-throated emerald and Brazilian ruby, along with the gorgeted sunangel and white-bellied woodstar, number among the 360 species of hummingbird, all with iridescent plumages that bring joy to the heart.
How fitting these birds with their wondrous names are being celebrated by one of the most skilled nature writers of the age. Jon Dunn’s The Glitter in the Green: In Search of Hummingbirds goes far beyond being a homage to these tiny birds – so small they confound the laws of physics and biology with their fairy-like flight and supercharged metabolism. Hummingbirds dash and dart across vast swathes of the New World. To find them, Dunn embarks on a quest from the edge of the Alaskan Arctic Circle to the southernmost reaches of South America, exploring how these birds have been worshipped and celebrated, but also abused and are now finally threatened with extinction.
It is a journey of highs and lows. Along the route, there are encounters with Cuba’s miniscule bee hummingbird – at two grams, the smallest bird in the world – and the marvellous spatuletail, a flying work of art.
As the author makes his way ever southwards, the encounters are punctuated with tragic tales of heartless exploitation through history, as in the Victorian feather trade which was awash with the slaughtered carcasses of astronomical numbers of bejewelled hummingbirds to decorate women’s hats.
And in Mexico, they are still killed so they can be turned into love charms.
Climate change and habitat destruction threaten to see the hummingbird one day become nothing more than a shimmering memory.
Dunn’s beautifully crafted love letter to evolution’s finest creation will, hopefully, inspire humanity to treat them as preciously as any glittering treasure.
The Glitter in the Green: In Search of Hummingbirds (Bloomsbury, £20)
In Victorian times vast numbers were killed to provide hat feathers