Tracy Johnson runs a page called Hummingbirdsxoxo, and she has spent years watching the tiny birds that visit her feeders. She has names for them, personalities for them, and a whole catalog of stories about what they do when nobody is looking. Her account has been profiled by Bored Panda, which reached out to hear more about her work. The result is a warm portrait of a hobby that turned into something closer to a lifelong obsession.
Johnson does not call herself an expert in bird behavior. She calls herself an observationist, a word she admits is not real. But the hours she has put in have taught her to tell one hummingbird from another. She knows Apollo, a male Anna hummingbird with a polkadot feather on his cheek. She knows Morgan, a male Rufous hummingbird with bright orange feathers and a terrible attitude. And she knows Valentino, a male Calliope Hummingbird with a sweet disposition who wants to live and let live.
“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?”
She grew up in Minnesota, where her grandmother kept a hummingbird feeder. That is where the fascination began, as a visual one. She started making photographs of the birds and noticed their subtle differences. Like snowflakes and humans, every hummingbird is unique in its appearance and its behavior. With time, she learned to recognize each bird by sight.
Watching The Birds
Johnson says the best way to learn about anything is to put in the time and watch things unfold. That led her to do Internet research on the birds she was seeing. She found lists of all hummingbird populations by region. But she also found that the more she knew, the more there was to learn.
One possible negative side effect of all these memes floating around is that people forget what unique creatures birds are. Johnson wanted to address what things many people get wrong about them. The most common misconception, she says, is that birds do not have personalities. That is completely untrue, she insists. She has met some of the sweetest hummingbirds, the ones who are careful with each other. She has also met some psychopath hummingbirds.
Morgan The Terror
Among the psychopaths is Morgan, the male Rufous hummingbird with the orange feathers and the terrible attitude. Johnson describes him as worthy of a spot on Santa’s n** list. One day, Morgan flew up to her and tried his best to stab her in the eye with his beak.
Hummingbirds do not have the body strength to put behind any aggression, she says. They are definitely not dangerous. The only danger in that situation would have been if she had left her eyelid open. He could have potentially scratched her eye, but the real danger was from her 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. She simply blew on him, and that tiny bit of wind pushed him back from her face. That snapped him out of it and he flew off to annoy the other birds in the yard.
What We Learn From This
The story is charming on its own terms. It is also a small argument for slowing down and paying attention. Johnson’s method is simple: watch, notice, name, repeat. That is how she became attached to individual birds. It is how she learned their habits and their moods.
The memes that circulate online are fun, but they can flatten the actual animals. Johnson’s account reminds us that birds are individuals with their own quirks. Apollo has his polkadot feather. Morgan has his terrible attitude. Valentino wants to live and let live. These are not stock characters. They are specific birds with specific histories.
The Morgan story is the highlight. It is absurd, it is funny, and it is a tiny bird behaving badly in a way that only a hummingbird could manage. Johnson’s laughter at the moment is genuine, and it carries the whole anecdote. She describes the scene as preposterous, and the word fits perfectly.
The takeaway is not that hummingbirds are dangerous. It is that they are fascinating. Johnson’s approach — putting in the hours and watching things unfold — is a model for anyone who wants to understand the world better. It is a reminder that the natural world is full of wonder, and that wonder is often right outside the window.
She ends on a note about the beauty of life: no matter how much knowledge you have about a subject, there is always more to learn. That is a lesson worth remembering, whether you are watching hummingbirds or reading about them.
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