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Spring is here!
And how do we know?
Well, the hummingbirds are starting to appear after
a winter down south.
And here to talk about that is my special guest...
Good morning spring watchers!
Birders right across the Americas are in a twitch.
Our favorite teeny tiny fliers are travelling.
That's right, the first sightings of hummingbirds!
Have you got your feeders out?
The Hummingbirds are coming your way!
I just love these birds, how can you not?
The smallest birds in the world.
Mumma's are starting to nest
so what are you waiting for?
Bird lovers; get your feeders up!
♪ Got on board a westbound ♪ seven forty-seven ♪
♪ Didn't think before ♪ deciding what to do ♪
♪ Oh, that talk ♪ of opportunities ♪
♪ TV breaks and movies ♪
♪ Rang true, sure rang true ♪
This is Beverly Hills, Wasabi.
See that park?
See all these trees and flowers?
Someday this will all be yours.
That's right, Wasabi.
You were born lucky.
I'm going to own all this,
and I don't even have any money.
♪ It never rains ♪ in California ♪
♪ But girl, don't ♪ they warn ya ♪
♪ It pours ♪
Someone says "Get off my property."
You can just give them the bird.
It won't be long, girl.
Another month and you'll be out here,
and you can have it all because
it's yours.
♪ I'm underfed ♪
♪ I want to go home ♪
♪ It never rains ♪ in California ♪
Alright it's
time to talk hummingbirds!
And where did you go on summer vacation?
Some travelers heading up from Mexico and Central America,
some moving all the way through to Canada!
Might be traveling through your yard
this very instant.
Hummingbirds can be
hurt by all manner of things.
Cats, tree trimmers, even windstorms.
And here to talk about that is Terry.
She runs a Hummingbird hotline.
Since 2008
she's received more than 20,000 calls.
Life in Hollywood with a hummingbird rehabber
is absolutely fascinating.
Did you see that guy? Jesus-
Oh my God, stay on your own side of the road,
no need.
Oh, shit.
Wasabi, I'm sorry. What happened?
Oh, shit.
I'm sorry, Wasabi. That was awful.
Here sweetie, come on down.
Here, baby, come on. It's okay.
You're good.
You're safe.
You're totally safe.
It's delicate and emotional work,
you've got to be calm and steady.
and it requires a good deal of comfort with
failure and loss.
But if you do it right, it flies away at the end.
I actually found an injured hummingbird
this morning while I was going for a walk,
and I picked it up and it cannot fly.
And are they awake?
One of them is, but one of them is
still sleeping, but it's waking up.
Sleeping is not sleeping.
Sleeping is unconscious, okay?
So try to get them here as soon as you can,
and that one has to eat.
Hi, this is Terry calling you about the hummingbird.
Sorry for bothering you on Mother's Day.
Oh no, no worries.
I'm without children.
Well, I guess I shouldn't say that.
I have hummingbirds, so.
Wonderful.
Well, basically, Alex, yeah,
we need to fix this or he's not going to survive.
Yeah.
And you probably sense that, right?
Do you think it was a baby?
- Yes. - Oh, okay.
It's like baby season or something?
It sure is.
His eyes stay closed a lot.
And have you seen the mother today?
Yeah, I have.
Okay, let's try the shoebox remedy then.
Hi, guys.
It was an honour to make the crochet nests.
I saw this quote and thought you might like it.
"Volunteers are unpaid
not because they are worthless,
but because they are priceless."
Oh, I like this one. This is good.
These will be very useful when more nestlings come in.
They kind of taunt you
and they'll hover and look right at you,
and you think,
"Why is he looking at me?"
And you wonder why? Why do they do that?
Why are they attracted to us?
And then they're-
boom, they're gone.
When you see how vulnerable
and helpless they are,
you wonder how any of them make it.
Their lives depend on me.
When they come in,
they're damaged, they're injured.
If I don't do everything right, they die.
Okay guys, let's go.
Oh, there you go.
Sidney, you made it.
She made it.
Hi, Sidney. How are you?
Hi. It's so nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
Thank you for bringing-
- Oh, of course. - We got to get them inside
right away in there. - Okay.
Come on in.
Come on in, Sidney, and bring your treasure.
I was thinking of what to name them
when I was up here. - Well, that's up to you.
We can call them the Sidney twins.
Cute things. - I know,
they're so adorable. - Come on, baby, open.
How old do you think they are?
Because I know they've been in my-
They're about two-and-a-half weeks.
Oh, really?
Yeah, and their mother,
obviously, has not been there all day today.
So she probably got killed last night.
This is the peak season, April through July,
so it just starts coming rapid fire.
So how long have you been doing this for?
Oh, don't ask.
- Oh, okay. - No, 15 years.
18 years, actually. 18 years. - {Sidney] Oh, wow.
See now, look, this is fascinating.
Look at this.
There are human hairs in this nest.
Really?
And it's a blonde.
It must be me.
This was in your yard?
- Yeah, so I- - This is your hair.
I don't know how they got my hair.
It is. It's long blonde hair.
That's what- - There's no one else blonde.
No, they would get it out of-
That's your hair.
They would get it off of the dryer vent.
Oh, really? Oh.
Mm-hmm, that's your hair.
Wow.
So the mother was mining your hair for her-
Oh my gosh.
nest.
They're looking for spiderwebs, too.
You saved them yeah.
All good babies.
Oh, I'm so happy that
they're both going to be okay.
They will.
- Yay. - There's no doubt in my mind
that they'll make it.
Oh, awesome.
Thanks to you.
Without you, no.
Without you.
Without us.
It's so tiny.
You think, "Wow,
that nest will never accommodate grown birds."
But that nest expands with the growing birds.
It's pretty amazing, and then, of course,
they decorate the outside with paint chips.
So I always know what colour people's houses are.
Okay, Jimmy, let's just get calm here.
You've had too hard of a day, haven't you?
Look at you, you're just a mess.
So Jimmy was found under a tree,
and he fell out of his nest.
There you go.
Now here, here, come on.
That's right.
He's still a baby.
Most likely his mother was killed.
Because I'm the surrogate now
he will wait for this syringe.
He's dependent.
His wiring tells him to remain dependent
for another week or so.
Mm-hmm, we hear that.
He's not happy being alone,
and you can tell because he cries.
Hi, Jimmy.
Hello.
He just went like...
Right now he looks sweet, he looks innocent.
But Jimmy eats aggressively, and he wants a lot of insects.
He has potential to be a real tyrant.
I believe that Jimmy will grow up
to be a very successful hummingbird.
We just put him in a shoebox.
We thought we were going to transport him.
He'll be DOA if we transport him now.
What we can try to do is revive him with sugar water,
and if you can get him stabilised,
then I'll take him. - Okay.
But I think we should try-
obviously, his mother's not feeding him.
Oh, gosh. Okay.
Go ahead and do that
and I'll call you right back, okay?
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Nick, what's up?
The hurt one on the
windowsill opened its mouth- - Okay, okay. Oh, he-
so, Nick, he's not hurt.
He's just young.
Hold on, I've just got some guys here.
Guys, let's all listen to what we have to do.
I'm trying to do the sugar water to see if he can see it
and see if he can fly to it. - No, no, she won't come down.
This is a female, by the way.
How do you know?
Because the females are the only ones
that come into the houses to get spiderwebs
for their nests.
And they just want to go up, up, up or into the light
and they can't find their way out again.
Okay.
If we don't do something,
she will sit up there and die up there.
I've seen it a hundred times.
- Can I speak? - Yeah.
My friend here, Alejandro is here
and he can speak with you.
I have a question, Terry.
I was listening to you talk about the paper bag.
Yes.
The goal is to try to capture it
within the bag and- - Right.
In a sense, we have to, you know,
agitate her out of that skylight.
What you do is you very slowly move the bag
around the skylight behind the bird
and no fast motions- - Got it.
but you very slowly move it around
and try to get the bird to go into the bag.
Nothing fast or quick, because then she'll get damaged.
- Yep. - Okay.
Unfortunately, all of these birds are nesting females
and they have babies.
So that you're saving three birds instead of one.
You could hear the thumping,
you could hear the wings slap up against it.
I saw the bird, frantically, just going from side to side
and it just kept hitting itself.
I put this little net over the bird,
and then whenever it decided it had enough energy,
it would start flying again.
And eventually it flew in
and just like you heard the tiniest little thump.
It went
onto the paper.
And I was terrified.
I thought maybe I'd killed it or injured it.
Terry told us to take it into the sunlight.
And of course, like any great film,
we went out and as soon as the sun touched it,
its little eyes opened up, and I had the opportunity
to observe this little creature breathing in
and breathing out the same way that I do.
She tilted her head, and took off so fast.
And it's so full of
life force.
When you get a wounded
or a hurt hummingbird, a downed hummingbird,
it's too much for people.
They just feel like I'd be a monster not
to help this creature.
I use the term co-parenting
because then they feel an investment.
He laid on the bed with us
for a couple of hours this morning.
It was really cute.
I'm going to miss him.
Seriously, I'm going to miss him.
Me too.
Hey, now you have lots of friends.
Aw.
He looks so cute.
Maybe Charlie's going to be a miracle.
Look at you little guys winger-sizing.
He's trying.
Yeah, he is tough.
Look how this one's mock-feeding the other baby.
Oh.
It's such maternal behaviour.
Isn't that amazing?
Wow.
You're witnessing something that's super rare.
She's just a baby herself.
She doesn't have any food, but she's practising.
Yeah, I was reading that female hummingbirds are some
of the best mother birds on earth.
They are very, very loyal, very strong.
Look at that. Isn't that amazing?
Wow.
She is so maternal.
I'm shocked.
There you go, girl.
Good.
Come on. Come on.
Come on.
Here, Cactus, come on.
Here you go.
Usually, wing injuries don't improve.
But yeah, Cactus has strong spirit.
She had hit something and then fallen onto her back
onto a cactus, and got thorns stuck in her back.
My family calls them spinas.
These spinas like sticking out of its back.
I came across a man who had his hands kind of cupped.
And I just instinctively was like,
"What, you know, what do you have?"
And I looked and there was a little hummingbird
in his hands.
So I was like, "I can take the bird."
And he was like, "Yes, like here,
I just found it in the dirt."
Terry asked if
I would be comfortable taking the little spinas out.
Just give it a little pull.
And I did.
Knowing that you have this other little creature
to take care of was like, okay, wait,
there's actually like a little life here
that needs you so that it can survive.
That tickles.
This is where you get attached to birds like this.
But she's got multiple injuries.
It's pretty grim. Her wing is hurt.
Can you go over to the feeder?
Can you get in my palm?
She's done with me.
I'm just going to let you rest for a little while-
have some food.
You need lots of rest time
before you get too ambitious,
'cause you can re-hurt yourself.
My dreams were very prosaic, and they were very American.
There were about 20 kids in my class
because it was a small rural elementary school,
and our teacher asked us to draw a picture
of what we wanted to be when we grew up.
So all the girls drew nurses and moms,
and the boys drew firefighters
and farmers and basketball coaches.
Terry drew
a person with a beret,
like a French beret,
and then the teacher came by
and she said, "What's this?"
And I said, "Well, I-
it's like an artist," and she said,
"Oh, you mean like a painter?"
And I said, "No, not exactly.
I'm not sure."
My parents did not encourage any artistic endeavours
because that's just so uncertain.
You know, you'll be broke.
You could be homeless.
My parents had nothing.
In Southern Wisconsin,
it's mostly just hard work.
Hello.
You're sticky?
I'm going to wash you.
That's good.
You're doing the right thing.
She probably would've been okay
if they hadn't dumped sugar water all over her.
But now, I don't know.
I can't be sure
whether she'll recover. I don't know.
Because sugar water strips feathers,
and they've gotten it all over her wings.
I know, baby.
I'm sorry about what happened to you,
it wasn't fair.
Damn it. People.
They call me and say, "Oh no,
now what do we do?"
Well, now that they've possibly ruined her,
but they had to let their kids play
with her all weekend.
So this is what you get with self-centered people.
It's okay.
I mean, these people,
I know exactly what they did.
She has holes in her wings
where the sugar water desiccated the feathers.
When I touched them, they felt like-
they felt crispy.
So she wasn't like that when they found her.
The wing feathers are destroyed.
Now, if you think a hummingbird
can fly without wings, good luck to you.
Do you think people are honest with us
when they want us to take a bird?
It just is sad for her, you know?
She pays the price.
And here's the bottom line about this kind of thing.
It's not just this one bird,
because what this attitude shows about finders like this
is indicative of a whole way of viewing the world
that a lot of humans have.
The natural world is treated this way
writ large.
So it's not just this one bird.
This one bird is a mirror
of their attitude toward all of nature.
There's no respect for the wildlife here,
and I don't want her to suffer anymore.
She's already paid a heavy price
for falling into the wrong hands.
I'm not going to let these people off the hook by saying,
"Oh gosh, they really tried hard" because they didn't.
They lie.
But I was lied to in this situation more than once,
and nobody likes that.
But if they think-
if they think I'm that much of a fool.
It's an offence to be treated like that much of a fool
when they lie to me like that.
I'm not that stupid.
I know exactly what you did.
Why lie?
I wasn't big on trust.
I was not raised in an environment
where you could trust anybody.
So you were on your own.
I call it my nail-biting childhood.
I was a very perfect child
until I got into college.
I knew there was something wrong,
but I couldn't identify it.
I just felt it all the time, "There's something wrong.
You're not right. You're not okay."
I was lost,
and was very wild.
Yeah, just, you know, the usual
addictions and outlets.
There are certain chemicals
that reveal things to you.
You know what I mean?
They opened up a new world to me
that made me realise how narrow and
defined and
colourless my world growing up was.
I understand why my parents
wanted me to have a secure job.
I'm not going to say which one's the best choice,
but I couldn't put the yoke on and go that way.
You know, people think that staying on course is scary.
Try having the whole world
and infinite possibility in front of you.
It's terrifying.
I'd never been to a city like Los Angeles.
This was like going to another planet for me.
Suddenly, there are no rules.
There are no boundaries.
Hummingbirds live in the moment.
They just live for now.
And that's perhaps the greatest lesson
that a human could learn from any wild animal.
I wrote a book about the hummingbirds.
It was wonderful.
Yeah, that's the ticket, baby.
Perfect.
It's a little hanging perch.
All the hummingbird requirements are included
in this structure.
This is a high-end condo,
that's what we're talking about here.
So this is
Mikhail and Alexa's new cage.
Mikhail and Alexa are just happy together.
Alexa, she was hit by a car.
Mikhail, he was a little bit
sulky at first,
but then he met Alexa and he fell in love.
He taps her chest with his bill,
and he taps her toes with his bill,
and he snuggles up to her at night.
They're very close.
Not all birds like each other.
If hummingbirds don't like their immediate company,
they will kill them.
I have a picture of two dead hummingbirds,
and it's a male and a female.
I'm like, "Whoa.
That was a serious interaction,
even though they're different species."
I mean, they were all beat up.
You could tell they had done it to each other.
He's been obsessed with Alexa
for the last week or so.
The chances of Mikhail succeeding
with Alexa are pretty low.
I don't know if Mikhail knows
that Alexa is a different species.
Alexa tolerates him.
So that's a love story we need to explore further.
I went to school forever.
I have four graduate degrees.
It was almost an obsession
of always living in the future,
looking to the future.
But what changes you are the things
that come, that hit you
out of the blue and gobsmack you
when you're not expecting it.
It's like everyone says when they fall in love.
It's like I went home.
When I met him, I felt like I found my home.
That's the only way I can describe that.
In a lot of ways, we were just the same animal,
under the skin we were the same.
Frank, he was incredibly brilliant.
He was a rebel.
He was kind of a Renaissance man.
Frank would wake up in the morning
and say, "I'm going to start a dive business."
Two weeks later, he had a dive business.
And he'd write a book and he'd get nominated
for a Pulitzer Prize.
He was an extremely competent human being,
that was pretty attractive.
I mean, anybody you love changes you.
If you give yourself to someone emotionally,
they always change us.
They always alter the way we see the world.
I know I changed him.
He was very supportive of the birds.
At first, he didn't get it,
but he was happy to let me do it.
You know, he had his own thing, and so
it worked out pretty well for us.
Good girl.
You did it.
This is my little finger.
That's the size they are, that's my little finger.
Oh look, you're feeling it.
Feeling those bugs.
The twins' enthusiasm is growing.
They are feeling it.
They're doing a lot of itching and scratching.
I'm thinking maybe they need some sunlight.
They get some nice vitamins.
This may help them to start flying.
Hello?
Hi Terry. This is Sidney.
I dropped off the two babies the other day.
Yeah, they're doing great Sidney.
They're sunbathing right now.
Aw.
They're sitting out here in a little pile.
They're having fun?
They're in with their new crew.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, no, they're happy.
Hopefully, they'll start flying,
and then we can move them through.
Are you going to
release them in Beverly Hills?
Yes.
Oh, they're at least a month from release.
Awesome.
It takes a long time to bring them back.
Well, 'til then they will just be living
in hummingbird paradise.
Yeah, they're moving up.
Hummingbirds seem to have an unusually magical,
sensational quality.
How can anything spin its wings 50 times per second
and not tap into some magical realism?
How can something fly vertical,
sideways, backwards,
and upside down
and not trigger those ideas,
those feelings in people?
There's nothing else like them.
Most birds are birds.
They flap their wings.
Hummingbirds, no.
Perhaps shouldn't even be birds per se.
Okay.
Oh, wait a minute. Wait right there.
I'm going to check you and see what's going on
with your wings, okay?
It's okay. You're safe.
Can you sit up on here?
That's right. Hold on to that now.
Okay. Hold on.
Come on.
Yeah, that's right.
Do you feel that?
Come on.
Her wing rotation is extremely low.
She's only going halfway.
Cactus it's okay, baby.
Unfortunately, she's been here a week.
They start to age in the ICU,
and then you know you're in trouble.
What is it, Cactus?
Why don't you just go?
She can feel the falling,
but now she can feel the air,
the breeze moving her,
and she wants to take to the wind.
But this doesn't happen in an uninjured bird.
The wing will not settle in front of the perch.
She's too old to not be flying at this point.
She should have flown a week ago.
I'll be honest with you.
When a bird is...
when they don't have much hope, I try not to bond
because it's too painful.
I mean, I care about this bird a lot.
She's a nice little bird.
So I'm going to give her some more time.
I mean, she's not horrible.
I've seen much worse, but it's not promising either.
Cacti.
Who's a nice girl?
She'd fly away if she could.
Let's be clear.
Hello?
Hi, this is Terry returning your call
about the hummingbird.
Oh, yes, Terry.
So for the last couple of weeks,
I've been seeing this white hummingbird
from a distance.
Well, this morning I went out there to water,
and it came right up to me about maybe
two feet from my face.
And it's white with pink eyes.
I've never seen anything like this in my life.
Absolutely beautiful.
Yeah, they are.
They're incredibly rare.
Like, they're like unicorns.
Even if it's flapping its wings,
it's completely white.
Yeah, I believe you.
They're remarkable creatures.
Raisin is a very handsome bird.
When I got him, it didn't seem
that Raisin would make it.
He has a head trauma.
Most rehab centres would not keep a bird like Raisin.
But Raisin flew a little bit yesterday.
He flew out the ICU door
and flew about six feet,
but not vertical.
Vertical flight is extremely difficult.
So right now, Raisin's on the lower perch.
Our goal is to get him to fly to the higher perches.
Whether he can do it or not remains to be seen.
They're going against gravity,
which requires vertical flight.
Most birds can't do that at all.
He wants to fly very badly,
and I hope that he will.
I mean, he's not defeated.
I've seen birds who were defeated.
He doesn't have that look of defeat on his face.
When you open the window,
they can hear and feel the wild.
See, immediately, he responds
to the air and the sounds.
It gives him a sensation that he's in the wild,
that he needs to fly.
And that's why the best rehab is in outdoor cages.
Every step that advances them is good.
It's so great to see them in here.
Oh my God, this is like paradise for a hummingbird.
It's insane how perfect it is.
Rehab birds need time
in the aviary for training and to grow up
just to mature.
They need to learn to sleep outside.
And so some of the perches simulate real-world branches.
They have an array of flowers,
and more space to fly in so
that they build up more strength
and more muscle,
and learn how to fight with each other.
Because that's an important
part of hummingbird experience.
How to defend themselves.
You have to really ensure that they're ready.
You've got to break that dependency
before you let them go into the wild.
No one else will protect you in the hummingbird world.
Yeah. Did you do a 360?
Can you do a 360?
Can you?
He said, "I was born to be on film."
That was a 180, that's not bad.
But that's not a 360.
He is really becoming a bird now.
He's really showing off.
He is preening for us now,
so he can look good for the camera.
Jimmy is a character, actually.
That was good.
See, if we did that,
we'd go down to the ground and fall
on our heads, on our backs.
But he was able to catch himself
because he can spin his wings that way.
Jimmy will double his weight in rehab.
So he's probably about two grammes now.
He should be four by the time he leaves.
This is Club Med.
And when we let him go,
they're going out into combat,
you know, into a war zone.
There are no rules-
you know, for saving creatures
and wildlife out in the natural world.
The natural world is a combat zone.
There's no hope if you're not aggressive
because it's everybody for himself or herself.
And when they see weakness, that's a target.
It's their instinct to eliminate
the competition at all costs.
When I first got him,
he was awake-
- He's hurt, yeah. - and he was flapping
around a lot and I didn't want to leave him.
Did you see him-?
You've never seen him fly.
He hasn't flown, no, not at all.
No, he's not going to.
- Oh, he's not? - For now, for now.
His back is hunched,
that's swelling from a spinal injury, so.
He's not going anywhere.
It's weird to know that
teenage birds are the same as teenage humans.
Humans, yeah, no, they are.
Not only are they out flying around
without a lot of experience,
but they got a target on their back.
You know, the adult males are after the young females
and he's competition,
so they're going to batter him and get rid of him.
He's the equivalent of a coma,
you know, he's not waking up and he's not-
He likes to eat though.
I mean, he ate lot.
He's in and out of
consciousness, I hate that because-
He was licking it off my finger yesterday,
that was a whole new experience for me.
The little tiny thing coming out.
His tongue, yeah.
I mean, he will eat,
but he's not conscious, if that makes sense?
Yeah.
He's eating kind of unconsciously,
he can't open his eyes.
Yeah, poor buddy.
Yeah, so.
Come on, Larry Bird, pull through, buddy.
He's just going to need some-
at least today,
I'm not going to do anything
but feed him and leave him alone,
and we'll see.
I never tell the finders,
"No, he's not going to make it,"
unless it's a broken wing that's hanging off
and it's obvious.
You can see that finders resist.
Most finders can't handle the truth about nature
and the harshness of
what we consider the brutality of nature.
Taking out the weaker ones
and preserving the strongest birds.
About 10 years ago, I had a dream.
I dreamt that I was walking up this spiral staircase
that was marble limestone,
and it was all white
and a very elegant staircase,
but a big house that was past its prime.
Kind of run down, falling apart.
But Frank wasn't there in the dream.
When I woke up, I told him about this dream,
and he said, "Well, I don't think we're moving again."
And I said, "I don't think so either.
It was just a weird dream."
But I didn't forget about it
because it was such a vivid, powerful dream.
Raisin,
he's got a very serious injury.
And he quivers and when they quiver,
that's pain or that's stress.
He has always looked perfect on the outside,
but the internal injuries are evident in his droppings.
Raisin
has been falling a lot.
And that's essentially a decline.
That's sad.
He had a
long cognitive decline.
We were together for 33 years.
When we met, he was the
stronger force and he was the rock
and in the end, I stepped into that role
to care for him.
It's one of the hardest things
that a caregiver will have to do,
especially when it's someone you love.
They come and they go, but
when you refuse to lock them away, they know.
That's nice and soft.
When I said goodbye, he let go
in the middle of the night.
He heard everything I said.
When you bury them,
because their bones are so light,
they disintegrate within a couple of days
like they weren't even here to begin with.
She says, "I don't know about this.
I didn't sign up for this."
Come on.
Put you in here. There we go, baby.
Okay, Sugar. You ready?
You ready? Come on.
There we go.
Okay.
You just relax.
Yeah, that's good.
That's good, sweetie.
Okay.
Let me get you cleaned up here.
It's okay.
No, that's good.
You've got to get wet.
Look at all these feathers coming off,
it's not going to itch anymore.
You won't look all punked out.
Look at you, your little punk cut's gone.
Are you ready now?
We're going to put you back in your cage.
Back down here.
You sit right there until you dry, okay?
She was just a sticky
ball of dried, crusty sugar water.
So she has bounced back brilliantly
from the abuse that she suffered.
By the time she hits the aviary,
you won't be able to
distinguish her from the others.
Hi Terry. This is Cyndee calling.
I would love to connect with you.
Hope to hear from you soon. Bye.
The ones that were in there when she came
all went into the aviary.
Okay.
They've all moved on to the next stage.
She's past the age, yeah.
She's passed the age when she should be flying.
She should basically be in a
large flight cage at her age.
So I'm not sure. - Oh...
Unfortunately, she's not making progress.
How is her head injury?
She doesn't have a head injury now.
- She didn't. - It's her right wing.
So if there is some kind of fracture or injury
in the shoulder joint, the wing...
we don't understand how to fix those.
We don't even understand how the wing works yet,
let alone how to fix it.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, she's just borderline.
She's going to make it?
I hope so, I'm working with her.
That's all we need, incremental.
Yeah, look at that.
Yes, you can.
Aw, that's so sweet.
She's a sweetie.
She's just such a sweetheart.
She's really nice.
Yeah.
You have feelings for these birds
after you've had them for a long time.
There's a certain pressure from the finders too,
texting and asking, "How's it doing?"
They want it to work so bad,
and that's not always easy.
In your mind's eye,
you always rate every bird when they come in.
You just don't tell anybody.
It's a rehabber's secret,
because nobody wants to hear the truth when it's bad news.
So,
Cactus?
10, 20%,
between 10 and 20% chance of making it, maybe.
Oh...
Sugar Baby.
So sad.
Yeah, she's gone.
I think she was just weak.
You can't address a trauma until you know what it was.
If I start talking about
it, I'm just going to evaporate.
But yeah, I was,
you know, I was badly abused
and put in the hospital as a child, and nearly died
from that experience.
Yeah, it was terrible.
That is the worst thing that could happen
to a child, really.
What are you doing?
Maybe that's the reason that I came to the hummingbirds.
You come ready-made with the empathy.
You don't need to develop it.
It's already there because of your own struggles.
Those kinds of experiences,
you take those to your grave.
It's so dark
and it's so painful
even now.
My mother was a very damaged
human being and unfortunately,
she passed that damage on.
I was angry at her for a long time,
but in the end, you're like,
"She had her demons and..."
We're too quick to dismiss the powers
that other creatures have.
We have science, we have
technology, we have literacy, but
a hummingbird's brilliance is really...
it surpasses
language.
Cactus,
I have a new plan for you.
Alright, now, Cactus,
how would you like to do a little flight training?
This is a magic wand.
This wand was this little stick I got 15 years ago.
I've even cut it off and filed the ends.
Every bird I've ever given flight training
or physical therapy to inside a cage was done
with this magic wand.
And it's like a wizard's wand.
It works.
I know.
Alright, Cactus, this is
what we call physical therapy flight training, okay?
I want you to step on the stick.
Good girl.
Now, we're going to raise and lower you,
maybe try doing it on this perch, okay?
When I lower this, I want you
to jump over there.
Can you jump over here?
See, that's what we're going to try to do now, okay?
Okay. So step up, sweetie.
Step up. Good girl.
Can you get on there? Can you jump?
Come on, come on, to here.
You're really gripping that.
You're just not ready, are you?
Come on, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, come on.
Over onto there, onto here.
Good girl.
She's afraid to let go.
She knows.
You know what I want you to do.
Come on.
She is almost letting go.
You're almost letting go, you're almost doing it.
You know you can.
Oh yes.
She did it. You did it.
Very good.
Very good-
yes, you should get a reward.
Here. That was good.
Okay, we're not going to try it anymore,
'cause I see that your wing is quivering
and I don't want to push it.
We're going to take a little time off now.
You did it once, that's good.
And then you can go back and sit for a while.
Okay?
You just stay there.
She did it.
I mean, she made a one-inch flight,
if you can call it that.
But that's all that she needs to do today.
I'm just proud of you, Cactus.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Now, if Einstein said that,
you know there's something there.
I don't think we give other species nearly enough credit
for the things that they understand
and the things that they can do that we can't do.
Humans always see themselves as superior
because we have the higher brain.
Things are not what they seem.
You know, they can see a flower from miles away.
When they're flying over a canyon,
they can see a flower from a mile away.
So they have these perceptions we don't have.
So why are we so superior again?
I want to know.
Jimmy is exactly what he should be,
which is a maniac
and a relentless flier.
We don't want him to be completely antisocial,
because sometimes that happens when they grow up alone.
I want to see him with some other birds.
So he's going into the cage with the Wild Boys.
He should fit right in with them
because they just never quit flying.
Come on, it's okay.
It's okay, guy, come on.
The less I handle these guys, the better.
Are you ready, Jimmy?
This isn't going to be super easy.
So...
Jimmy, come on. Sit.
Why don't you land, huh?
Come on. Come on, it's okay.
It's okay.
Come on, we're going to move you into a new house.
Come on, Jimmy.
Come on.
Come on, Jimmy, come on. Land.
He's like, "Mm-mm, you're not getting close to me."
Come on, Jimmy. Come on, come on.
I got you.
I got you, okay.
Oh shit.
Oh no.
Oh.
I don't have a net.
Oh crap.
Oh shit. Jimmy, come on down buddy.
At some point, he is going to tucker out.
He is good, boy.
Dammit.
You stay away from the vent, buddy.
Yeah, that's right.
But he's not as strong as an adult.
He's got a lot of energy.
He's going after the flowers on the wall.
Come on, sweetie, just land.
He's running out of steam.
Oof.
Oh.
Phew.
Done.
Done, done, done.
He's exhausted now, but he's still flying.
Jimmy, that was really evil.
I got to get a net.
Every step toward the wild is scary.
Alexa and Mikhail are doing beautiful.
Alexa looks so good.
Oh my God, she's beautiful.
She's very independent now.
Okay guys, come on, let's go.
Here we go.
That's Mikhail.
That's Alexa.
I'm not lonely.
Everybody thinks that when someone dies,
they leave you. But they don't.
If you allow them to stay,
their presence is with you.
Frank...
he's still around.
I feel that presence, you know?
It's never gone.
Life is a series of metaphors stacked up
on top of each other.
In my mind, all the things you see
with these little birds,
it's all stuff that we've gone through.
You know, their struggles,
their deaths, their successes.
Good morning, Cactus. You made it.
You made it through the night.
Are you going to fly?
Good girl.
Yeah, can you do it again?
Can you?
Can you show me what you can do?
Can you do it? Can you do that?
Did you do that? Can you show me?
Can you show me what you did?
Come on, show me what you did.
Pretty amazing.
Come here, baby. Let's try.
You almost turned.
You almost did a spin.
I did not expect this.
Can you show me?
Can you go to the other side?
You got it made, baby.
You don't need my help anymore.
It's a done deal.
Are you going to fly?
Can you fly?
Come on. That's right.
That's a turn.
Punctuation mark, noted.
I'm impressed.
That's huge, Cactus. You go, girl.
Who else is a hero?
Wasabi, we're going to move you into a cage with Cactus,
and I hope you guys get along.
I think you will 'cause she's really nice.
She'll be a good mentor for you
because I know you want to fly.
Okay, Wasabi, you and Cactus are cage mates now.
I expect you to learn from each other.
Cactus is such a benevolent spirit.
There will be no trouble.
Oh.
Oh my gosh.
Wasabi, you can't be the aggressor.
She wants to be near her.
That's her first vertical flight.
That's pretty cool.
Cactus, congratulations.
You're a miracle. It's certifiable.
Sweet little thing,
I hope she can eventually make her way
to the aviary to be released back into
Los Angeles.
And to think like they're going to travel so far.
They'll catch on with the other hummingbirds hopefully
and figure out what they're doing out in the wild
and come on back and bring
their little journeys with them.
I hope she has a beautiful future in front of her.
Our curse as humans is
we need to know that we matter.
That the things we do matter.
I always tell people
I never measure a rescue by the outcome,
only by the compassion that went into saving the bird.
That's what matters.
I think they're ready, and I know I am.
They all look terrific.
I know I did my job.
Transitions are always tense.
They know something's up.
Jimmy is ready.
They love you and they love you when they're young.
And then when they get older and independent,
they hate you.
That's what we aim for.
Jimmy is pretty wild.
He's not interested in human relationships anymore.
He's brilliant.
Oh, good catch.
That was very good.
It's bittersweet because I
feel pretty close to this group.
Alexa is telling Mikhail,
"When we get out of college,
get in touch.
Don't forget about me. Here's my number.
I expect to hear from you."
I'm guessing that three or four will stay.
Maybe little Charlie will stay.
If they decide that they don't want to leave,
I never force anybody.
They'll be totally fearful at first.
They'll be uncertain because in nature,
just like with humans, damaged birds,
they carry a kind of caution
about everything.
They know life is hard.
Hey, Cactus.
Hello.
Hello there, I see you.
Hi. Are you ready to go?
You know we healed you.
You're perfect now.
Yeah, no, it's...
she's ready.
I want her to go out.
Yeah, I will worry about her, but I want her to go.
This is always a scary moment for me,
and I know it's over.
And it'll take them a minute to recognise
that they're allowed.
Are you guys going to come out?
You can come out.
This is a very obedient crew, so maybe we don't-
Oh, there you go.
There we go.
Jimmy,
his first flight out, he looks great.
Oh.
He just shot about a hundred feet into the air.
People see hummingbirds,
and the first thing they say is how sweet they are.
But they shed that skin and they become warriors.
Come on, guys.
Come on.
Come on out.
Come on you guys. You're free.
They're all shooting out.
That's Alexa.
Oh.
Good job.
That's Charlie.
Look at him now.
He's free.
He looks pretty adept, too.
He's fighting with somebody.
Okay. Come on, guys.
Let's go. Come on.
Come on, Cactus. Come on, sweetie.
Come on, come on, come on.
Yeah, you can do it.
Come on. Come on, Cactus.
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
She's out and she's up. She's gone.
I like to tell people the truth.
And the truth is when you show compassion
and you show love for something
that you don't have to,
it's an act of greatness.
♪ Don't worry ♪
♪ About a thing ♪
♪ 'Cause every little thing ♪ is gonna be alright ♪
♪ Singing, Don't ♪ worry about a thing ♪
♪ 'Cause every little ♪ thing is gonna be alright ♪
♪ Rise up this morning, ♪ smiled with the rising sun ♪
♪ Three little birds ♪ pitch by my doorstep ♪
♪ Singing sweet songs ♪ of melodies pure and true ♪
♪ Saying, This is my ♪ message to you ♪
♪ Singing, Don't worry ♪ about a thing ♪
♪ 'Cause every little ♪ thing is gonna be alright ♪
♪ Singing, Don't worry ♪ about a thing ♪
♪ 'Cause every little ♪ thing is gonna be alright ♪
♪ Rise up this morning, ♪ smiled with the rising sun ♪
♪ Three little birds ♪ pitch by my doorstep ♪
♪ Singing sweet songs ♪ of melodies pure and true ♪
♪ Saying, This is ♪ my message to you ♪
♪ Singing, Don't ♪ worry about a thing ♪
♪ Worry about ♪ a thing, oh ♪
♪ 'Cause every little ♪ thing is gonna be alright ♪
♪ Don't worry ♪
♪ Singing, Don't worry ♪ about a thing ♪
♪ I won't worry ♪
♪ 'Cause every little thing ♪ is gonna be alright ♪
♪ Singing, Don't worry ♪ about a thing ♪
♪ 'Cause every little ♪ thing is gonna be alright ♪
♪ I won't worry ♪
♪ Singing, Don't worry ♪ about a thing ♪
♪ 'Cause every little ♪ thing is gonna be alright ♪
♪ Singing, Don't ♪ worry about a thing ♪
♪ Worry about a ♪ thing, oh ♪
♪ 'Cause every ♪ little thing ♪