Dr. H. Ross Hawkins (1939-2020), founder and executive director of the International Hummingbird Society said: “From the start, the Hummingbird Society has believed that wildlife art can be used to raise consciousness. The Hummingbird Society understands that what we learn to appreciate and love, we will want to protect. Because of the beauty of these birds, the world of art plays a key role in accomplishing this goal.”
The International Hummingbird Society is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Dr. Hawkins when he was unable to find any organization established to protect the 10% of the 300 + species of hummingbirds that are endangered. The Society’s mission is teaching about hummingbirds and working to protect the species at risk of extinction. None of the hummingbird species in the US are currently threatened; the ones at risk are found in Central and South America. Towards that conservation effort, the Society’s major outreach is the now annual Sedona Hummingbird Festival.
Dr. Hawkins said, “It is perhaps surprising for a conservation organization to acknowledge the role of art, but that has always been our orientation since our mission includes education. Even from our very first festival in Tucson in 2003, the presentations were coordinated with a wildlife art show. Featured artists for each of our first three years were Adele Earnshaw and Joe Garcia, both well known in Sedona and currently showing at the Mountain Trails Gallery, and renowned wildlife artist, Gamini Ratnavira.”
Choose from a vast selection of Hummingbird themed art, jewelry, books, at Sedona Hummingbird Gallery and every summer at the Sedona Hummingbird Festival Marketplace.
The Marvelous Spatuletail, named for his two extraordinary spatula-shaped tail feathers. The male gyrates them up and down for the female in a glorious dance of love.
The Hummingbird Society is partnering with the American Bird Conservancy raising funds to purchase 1100 acres in Peru to provide land protection and habitat restoration for this rare and spectacular, critically endangered, and 'marvelous' Spatuletail.
“I wish you could have been there that Saturday morning in May 2008,” Ross began. “I was just finishing breakfast when I heard a knock on the back door. I opened the door to see my neighbor Brian, holding an old one gallon pickle jar under his arm, covered with aluminum foil with holes punched in it. ‘Ross,’ he said, ‘I found this hummingbird on the floor of my garage. It must have gotten shut inside and couldn’t get out. I didn’t know what to do, but I figured you would, so I’m bringing her to you.’”
“Inside the jar was a black-chinned hummingbird, and she didn’t look good. I explained to Brian that she really needed to eat right away, so I took the jar and the hummingbird from him and told him I would take care of her. I walked around to the side yard to one of our many hummingbird feeders. I held her in my hand and put her beak in one of the feeder ports. She drank and drank and drank for about five minutes. Then she stopped. ‘Good,’ I thought to myself. ‘Now she’ll be able to leave.’”
“I sat there in the lawn chair and held out my hand with the hummingbird in it. I was expecting she would fly away immediately, but she didn’t. She did stand up and blink her eyes at me, but she just stayed put ... for five minutes, ten minutes ... fifteen minutes! I was beginning to get worried. But then she started flapping her wings and rose up about 6 inches. I thought, ‘Ah, here she goes.’ But, she didn’t! Instead, she flew toward my face, and with her tongue and her beak she tickled my moustache, and then she flew away like a little skyrocket. Now, I don’t speak hummingbird, but I think I know what she was trying to say.”
Ross had been working since 1996, with a mission of protecting and teaching people about hummingbirds. So, here was a well-deserved ‘thank you’ — and not from just anyone but from the little bird itself. He loves to say, “I’ve been kissed by a hummingbird!”
