Calliope Hummingbird – Bird Art Print on Wood

This listing is for a limited edition, fine art print of my original painting of a Calliope Hummingbird called, “Hope Springs Eternal.”

A couple months ago, I happened to be standing in exactly the right spot at the exact right time and spotted this super-tiny Calliope Hummingbird nestled amongst the branches of a dense tree. I was miraculously able to snap a few photos between the twigs before the little fellow moved on. I haven’t seen him since. It’s my understanding that they’re migratory and that I was lucky to spot him at all.

Since Calliope’s are the smallest bird in the United States, they tend to get chased off by other hummingbirds. As a result, they do what they can to remain unnoticed.

As I type this on June 19th, 2020, the United States is facing a great reckoning. The issue: our continued mistreatment of all People of Color, and more specifically, Black people. The systemic racism that has oppressed a whole group of people for no reason other than the color of their skin. People being murdered for something as insignificant as a $20 bill (George Floyd), or simply being asleep in their home (Breonna Taylor), or just trying to get some exercise (Ahmaud Arbery).

We’re also in the middle of a world-wide pandemic. Oddly, the two things coinciding has actually served to create conditions for an actual shift. The distractions of life-as-usual have been tempered by unemployment and a dialing down of consumerism. People have the time and space to consider what is truly important and are showing up in unprecedented numbers to protest and fight for equal treatment of all people.

Something that gives me hope.

50% of my profits from the sale of this hopeful Calliope Hummingbird will be donated to Color of Change, an  organization doing hard work for racial justice.

 

See the painting come together

About the Calliope Hummingbird

from AllAboutBirds.org:

• The Calliope Hummingbird is the smallest bird in the United States. It weighs about one-third as much as the smallest North American warblers and about the same as a ping pong ball.
• This tiny hummingbird is the smallest long-distance migrant in the world. Calliope Hummingbirds travel around 5,000 miles each year in a big oval from the breeding to wintering grounds. They migrate north along the Pacific Coast in the spring, but return to the wintering grounds in Mexico via an inland route along the Rocky Mountains.
• Calliope Hummingbird is named after Calliope, the muse of eloquence and epic poetry, who inspired Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
• The oldest recorded Calliope Hummingbird was a female, and at least 8 years, 1 month old, when she was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Idaho in 2014. She had been banded in the same state in 2007.

Range Map of the Calliope Hummingbird

Range map provided by Birds of North America