Hummingbirds, such as this Lesser Violetear,are fantastically resilient, possessing world-class survival skills that make most of us look like amateurs. They can survive freezing temperatures by entering a state of torpor, migrate thousands of miles without GPS, and thrive at nose-bleed altitudes where the air is thin. They are, for all intents and purposes, nature’s tiny superheroes.

However, even superheroes have vulnerabilities. For our feathered dynamos, their Achilles’ Heel is the loss of the places they call home, whether directly through human activity or indirectly due to climate change. By rendering the background in a silver-grey monochrome, I’ve stripped away the environment, leaving our protagonist wistful for days gone by. It’s a nuanced story of survival that asks us to look past the iridescent feathers and see the frailty beneath.