This painting is one of over twenty original works I created for Brave Baby Hummingbird (2023), authored by New York Times bestselling writer Sy Montgomery. Painted over the course of a year, each piece took nearly 40 hours to complete. The book traces the extraordinary early life of hummingbirds—fragile yet astonishing creatures capable of backward flight, high-speed dives reaching sixty-one miles per hour, and wingbeats exceeding sixty per second. Through lyrical storytelling and luminous imagery, it invites young readers to marvel at biodiversity and to cultivate a sense of care for these remarkable birds and the ecosystems they call home.