Bored Panda got in touch with Tracy Johnson from Hummingbirdsxoxo and she was kind enough to share her thoughts on our avian friends. First of all, we wanted to hear more about her relationship with birds in general. 

“I don’t think I would actually call myself a bird behavior specialist so much as a bird behavior, observationist, which is honestly not even a real word. I think the best way to become a so-called expert at anything is to put the hours into observation. I have always been fascinated with hummingbirds. My grandmother had a hummingbird feeder in Minnesota where I grew up,” she shared. 

“There is something magical about these tiny birds that remind me of the fairies that I loved as a child. The most incredible things to me are the size and speed of them. They’re basically flying rainbow fairies. What’s not to love? My fascination with the birds started out as purely visual. I started to make photographs of them and that’s when I realized all of the subtle intricacies of the birds.”

“Like snowflakes and humans, every single hummingbird is unique in its appearance, and in its behavior. With time, I started to be able to tell the difference between each bird to the point where I was able to name them and recognize them when they arrived at the feeders. There was Apollo a male Anna hummingbird with one wayward polkadot feather on his cheek. And Morgan, a male Rufous hummingbird with bright orange feathers and a terrible attitude worthy of a spot on Santa’s Naughty list. And Valentino, a male Calliope Hummingbird with a sweet disposition and a desire to just live and let live.” It's a quite well-documented fact that birds manage to give all sorts of vibes, based on their unique personalities. 

“The best way to learn about anything in life is to put in the time and just watch things unfold. Watching all of these birds inevitably led to more questions and that led me to do some Internet research. The beautiful thing about life is that no matter how much knowledge you have about a subject? There is always more to learn,” she shared with Bored Panda. Those interested can also explore lists of all hummingbird populations by region. 

One possible negative side effect of all of these memes floating around is that people sort of forget what unique creatures birds are, so we wanted to hear what things many people get wrong about them. “I think the most common misconception about birds, and actually any creature aside from a human: is that they don’t have personalities. And that’s completely untrue. I have met some of the sweetest hummingbirds, the ones who are careful with each other. I have also met some psychopath hummingbirds.”

“Including Morgan who I mentioned earlier, who at one point flew up to me and tried his best to stab me in my eye with his beak. Hummingbirds do not have the body strength to put behind any aggression so they are definitely not dangerous. I think the only danger in that situation would have been if I had left my eyelid open. He could have potentially scratched my eye, but the real danger was from me dying of laughter because the whole situation was so preposterous. Here's a tiny wisp of a bird, taking on a full-grown human, and thinking that he could win. I simply blew on him, and that tiny bit of wind pushed him back from my face. That snapped him out of it and he flew off to annoy the other birds in the yard.”

“I also think a misconception about hummingbirds is that they are loners. And, for the most part in my experience, this is true with my resident hummingbirds who stay year-round in the backyard. They tend to keep to themselves and avoid eye contact, except during mating season. But for the travelers, which is what I call the migratory hummingbirds: I have noticed a camaraderie between them. It has been said that all of these birds travel alone on the migratory route, sometimes as far north as Canada, and as far south as Mexico. I don’t think that they travel alone. Every year the rufous hummingbirds arrive in our yard: they all arrive on the same day. “

“I think the main draw for bird content is that people don’t know as much about interactions with birds as they do with other animals such as cats and dogs. So there is something mysterious about people who are able to interact with birds. But it’s not a special gift that I’ve been given, it’s the idea that if you show an animal that you hear them and you see them. They will begin to interact with you. The most important thing that you can do if you want to interact with anything in the natural world is to express kindness towards them.”

“Show them that you do not mean any harm. The best way to do this is to speak quietly and move slowly. If you want to make friends with the birds in your yard, become part of the scenery. Take a book and go and sit at a table outside and set your hummingbird feeder on the table 4 feet away from you. And every single day sit out there at the exact same time until the birds realize that you are just another creature in the backyard. This is how I started to get the hummingbirds to hand feed from me from the little hand feeders filled with sugar water. It takes time. But it’s definitely worth it.”

“I managed to make friends with some wild, cottontail rabbits in my yard, and I’m able to hand-feed them as well. And that was accomplished in the same way that I got the hummingbird comfortable with me. I just became a part of the scenery.” You can find more of her work on Instagram and Facebook. And if you want more bird memes, Bored Panda has got you covered, check out our previous article on this topic.