First Flight: A Mother Hummingbird's Story

Thank you for making this film which was enjoyable to watch including your cat in it whom seemed to understand the situation and was adorable & respectful to the birds. Birds are so beautiful & I have been able to watch cardinals & robins feeding their babies its really amazing to see this up close and cardinals work as a team where both parents watch & feed the babies but the robin is the only parent doing all the work. The babies are fun to watch flapping their wings demanding to be fed. Including the robin teaches the babies to duck & stay quiet and they look so different when they're babies. The robin looks like it has strips and I watched another hummingbird movie showing many different kinds of hummingbirds of shapes and sizes. Some aren't Iridescent like Honey wasn't. I learned so much and I'm so grateful for the time you spent making a book also. The birds make it so we can go outside because hummingbirds have to eat every 15 minutes in order to survive and they fly differently from other birds making others look not as graceful & they can fly backwards and upside down also. Some have short beaks others are long sword ones, curved beaks and they each have their own territory and flowers. Male birds dance trying to impress their mates. Thank you to everyone who feeds birds because the expression "you eat like a bird when birds eat more than the bodyweight a day & it takes more energy for the hummingbird who uses up so much energy drinking nectar and flowers make it so only hummingbirds can get their nectar they're warm blooded until insects who are cold blooded and slow moving when they're awake. Also hummingbirds use energy fighting off other birds and its only the mother who takes care and raises the babies. Each bird is different and I love to see all kinds. People say they can find their own food when many babies don't ever make it to adulthood when they have to leave their nest and others take their eggs or kill the babies even when its warm. The birds eat the bugs and different birds eat seeds, some eat worms, and most hummingbirds stay away from bees and wasps which can kill many of them because they're so small but there are ones that are larger including 1 that acts like an insect and toys like an insect so regular Hummingbird's don't bother it. It was Avery enjoyable evening watching this and another story with people who were able to slow down the filming to show how hummingbirds actually fly which was amazing including seeing the hummingbird lay its eggs and preparing the nest and repairing it when the babies were born to make sure they didn't fall all after it gets damaged and it looked like a tight fit as they were growing through the 5 week process and then teaching her babies how to find their own food. I also enjoyed the naming of the birds and storyline. 1 bird flew out of nest before its sibling making the mother go back to 2 different places feeding them both. Learning about how they fatten themselves up so they fly where its warm crossing the ocean 800 to a 1,000 miles pretty impressive. Be respectful and grateful of the birds because survival and fighting for the territory daily while searching for food shows a birds life isn't easy with all kinds of predators.

This was one of the more precious videos I've seen about Hummingbirds. I really enjoyed the photography and the story behind it. Great narration. Just wonderful!

This film is so interesting and well filmed I have watched it three times in the last two years! Definitely worth viewing if you appreciate hummingbirds and their diligent care of chicks. Exceptionally well framed and best home documentary I've watched.

What a smart and loving story to connect all hearts and minds to the wonder, power and fragility of life. The narration and videography are excellent. It's a great entertainment and learning experience for people of all ages and will be at the top of my gift buying list for a long time.I don't watch a lot of nature documentaries or shows, and when I do it really needs to connect with me and move me along (--probably more a statement on my ADHD than on the worthiness of nature productions). This "documentary" is told as a story expressing a perfect balance of objective observation and personal narrative. When watching the DVD, I was easily drawn into Honey's (the Mother Hummingbird's) story and really felt like I became part of her new family. Afterwards I felt that age-old peace and oneness of realizing the spiritual truth that we really are one with each other and all living things.This is a beautifully created production by Noriko and Don Carroll, who have been creating video, photographic, and computer generated art and special effects productions for many years. "First Flight: A Mother Hummingbird's Story" is a bit of a departure from much of their previous work, which was largely set and produced in New York City and was often, in a very creative and innovative way, very high-tech in concept and execution. "First Flight" is set in the backyard of their current home in Nevada and doesn't feel that way at all; it is very high-touch and the technology is never apparent, although the challenge of capturing the reality of these tiny, beautiful creatures must have relied upon the experienced usage of digital technologies and special effects (the "Making Of" feature on the DVD, if you're interested, does present some interesting insight into this part of the creative production process). The narration, done by Noriko, sounds so natural and it's done in such a way that, at times, it's like listening to Haiku. I'm sure it could stand on its own as an audio presentation. Together with a good soundtrack and the amazing video of the single mother bird, Honey, and her hatchlings, Ray and Zen, the narration draws you into a story that's hard to resist.As mentioned previously, the "Making Of" feature on this DVD is almost as fascinating as the main story. It provides some wonderful insight, mostly through interviews with the filmmakers, into both creative processes and stories. On the one hand, it conveys how Noriko and Don Carroll discovered Honey and her nest, and then were drawn into her life, as well as the technical and practical challenges of capturing and telling her story through moving images. (Hint: Like so much of human experience and expression, it really is done "with lights and mirrors" and, here, we are much better served because of it). On the other hand, this special DVD extra feature gives us a glimpse of the story behind the story...a bird's eye view of what ornithologists apparently know but rarely capture of the life and travels of a hummingbird.Together, the main story along with the great special feature present a story about creation as well as the creative process. Like the mirrors used by the filmmakers to capture the otherwise evanescent movements and life of these hummingbirds, they reflect and express nature's -- or God's, if you will -- seemingly inexhaustible creative force happening all around us, whether right before our eyes or in a gazillion hidden places. At the same time, we gain a deep appreciation about how two artists can work together and capture in their creative net a wonderful slice of life they share with us that we otherwise would not have the time, opportunity, or patience to know and understand.In the end, this is a story about the labor of love and the creative process that can be appreciated and enjoyed by people of all ages at many levels.