Hummingbirds in Colombia

Also available in English with the title: Hummingbirds in Colombia

Difficult, if not impossible, to escape the enchantment that a hummingbird produces. This is prevented by his graceful figure, his dazzling colors and the fascinating acrobatic ability he can display in front of a flower. Of the animals that move through the air, the hummingbird is the one that best masters the art of flying: forward, backward, up, down.

These birds, whose size ranges between 5 and 20 cm, only exist in America, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, with the highest concentration in the tropics. Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela have the greatest diversity of hummingbirds, whose family includes more than 100 genera and 350 species.

Specialized in drinking nectar from flowers and pollinating them, the history of hummingbirds is as magical as their charm, but still elusive. However, we know that several ancient cultures honored them and left testimony of this. It is enough to remember the hummingbird that appears in one of the Nazca lines.

The fascinating scientific look that this book and its beautiful images offer on the evolution, biology, anatomy, ecology and other aspects of these ineffable little birds takes care of all of this. A look as captivating as the object of its study itself.

At a time when the planet sees its fauna, flora, waters, climate and, in general, a good part of its resources, threatened, a book about this extraordinary pollinator, which plays an important role in the conservation of flora , and where we present 100 different species found in Colombia, captured by the lens of the great South African photographer Murray Cooper, it is more than appropriate.