A new exhibit featuring 20 original nineteenth-century, hand-colored lithographs of exotic hummingbirds opens at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Friday, May 6 and runs through Sept. 5.

I remember my first hummingbird well. I had just arrived here from Wales and was taken out to do some birding by my host. I hadn’t done my homework and so was ignorant of which birds to expect.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw a male Broad-billed Hummingbird. It was ten years ago, and we were sitting in the backyard watching the mountains put on their daily light show as the summer sun ...