Introduction

In Native American lore, bees symbolize community; Celtic myths tell us bees are spirit messengers from the Otherworld. Around the world, butterflies evoke the promise of metamorphosis. And the sparkling, hovering hummingbirds, because they are impossibly tiny and fast and beautiful, are emblems of irrepressible life.

The Aztecs believed hummingbirds, who are furious fighters, are reincarnated warriors. They’ve returned to life with swords as beaks, continuing their battles forever in the sky. They called them huitzitzil and ourbiri—“rays of the sun” and “tresses of the day star.”

Early Spanish visitors to the New World, seeing hummingbirds for the first time (they only live in this half of the globe), called them “resurrection birds.” They believed that anything that glittered so brightly had to have been made new each day.

In the Dominican Republic, people call them suma flor—“buzzing flower.” The Portuguese called them beija-flor, or “flower kisser.”

The Great Pollinator Disappearance: Birds, Bees, and Butterflies Are All in Decline

Today, perhaps more than ever before, we thirst for community. We hanker for transformation. We long to reconnect with […]