In Isabelle Groc’s new nonfiction picture book, a young boy watches as an Anna’s hummingbird makes an unusual home on the side of his balcony to raise its young. Hear from the author on what inspired her to write Hummingbird on My Balcony and what she hopes young readers will take away from it.
What inspired you to write A Hummingbird on My Balcony?
I have always had a special love for hummingbirds, especially Anna’s hummingbirds, perhaps because they have adapted to live near humans in cities. It is the only species of hummingbird in North America that resides year-round in the Pacific Northwest region. Since the 1930s, Anna’s hummingbirds have expanded north and east from a range that was previously restricted to coastal California. Known for their spectacular aerial acrobatics, the birds now can be seen as far north as southern Alaska. This rapid range expansion, particularly into colder regions, is believed to be caused by more people providing nectar feeders and planting exotic flowers that bloom in different seasons in urban and suburban gardens.
I find Anna’s hummingbirds are an enchanting window into the natural world, accessible to those who take the time to notice them. They are an inspiration to me, and I decided I wanted to document how they live in urban areas and how their presence helps build city dwellers’ connection to nature.
I started working on this project in 2021 during the pandemic. Usually Anna’s hummingbirds build nests on tree branches, but in cities they take advantage of unusual nesting spots like plant hooks, outdoor lights, electrical wires and patio decorations. Even though the birds live close to us, their nests remain well camouflaged and can be difficult to find. I posted a call for help on social media, asking people if they knew of nests in urban parks or in their backyards. I am very grateful for the incredible support of the scientists, naturalists, photographers, homeowners and friends who helped me identify nest locations. This is how I met a four-year-old boy, Noah, and his family who shared their lives with a female Anna’s hummingbird that built a nest and raised her chicks on the family’s balcony on the 22nd floor of a high-rise building in the Lower Mainland. This was the most unusual spot I had seen, and I worked with the family for several years to document the daily life of their hummingbird. This is the story I focused on in the book.
What was the most surprising fact you learned about Anna’s hummingbirds while writing this book?
I was really surprised that a hummingbird would choose to make a nest in what seemed to be a very precarious spot: a balcony in a high-rise building located in a busy urban area. The nest looked so fragile and small, and I was constantly worried that it would fall down with the first gust of wind. Yet I learned that hummingbird nests are surprisingly strong. Female hummingbirds use threads of spider silk, nature’s strongest glue, to hold the nest together and secure it to the foundation. They shape the nest into a cup by stamping their feet, rotating their body and smoothing the outer edge with the chin. Hummingbirds also add tiny bits of bark, twigs, lichen, leaves and moss to the outside of the nest to keep it well camouflaged. I truly admired the balcony nest as a sophisticated work of art.
What was your favorite part of writing and photographing the book?
As a writer and photographer, I always combine visuals and words in my creative process and my storytelling. With my background in photojournalism, I am always “seeing” my stories unfold in front of me when I am writing. Conversely, when I take photographs, I am thinking about how these images will help build a narrative. For this book, my favorite part of putting it together was selecting the photos that worked best to illustrate the unique and surprising aspects of the life of the Anna’s hummingbird on the balcony. The fact that this bird chose to raise a family high above the streets of the city, among the tall concrete buildings, so far from nature, highlights the remarkable adaptability of the species in urban environments, and I wanted to include photos that showed this incredible contrast between the tiny hummingbirds and the overwhelmingly busy urban landscape, with the artificial city lights and the constant deafening sounds of car and train traffic.
What do you hope young readers will take away from A Hummingbird on My Balcony?
As I worked on this project, I realized how much comfort and joy the birds brought to anyone who was lucky enough to have these visitors make a home in their backyard. Like the strong spider silk that holds hummingbird nests together, these birds bind communities together and bring out the best in us. They are a reminder of the power of nature in our lives and why it is so essential to protect it.
I hope this book will be an inspiration for young readers to pay attention to the beauty of nature around them. You don’t have to travel far to see wildlife species. You can see so much right on your doorstep wherever you live. Sadly, hummingbirds face many threats from pollution, pesticides, urban predators and a warming climate. In the book, young readers learn that with a few simple actions, we can all help hummingbirds survive and thrive in urban areas.
What’s next for you? Any new projects on the go?
In parallel to my work on urban hummingbirds, I have also been photographing and filming another bird species, the western sandpiper, along their migration route for the last 16 years. I have written and directed a new documentary, Sandpipers’ Last Supper, that tells the story of this tiny shorebird’s epic journey, powered by an invisible fuel in the mud. It is now released on CBC’s Nature of Things YouTube Channel and CBC GEM.
The film highlights shorebirds, one of the fastest disappearing groups of birds in the world; reveals the beauty and ecological value of under-appreciated intertidal mudflats; and supports a call to action for the conservation of these vital habitats that have starkly declined.
I have always been fascinated by shorebirds as the planet’s most extraordinary global travelers. Each species has its own story, but in every case these annual migrations are among nature’s most epic dramas. I plan to continue using photography, filmmaking and writing to raise awareness about the global decline of many bird species and inspire more people to protect them.
I am also working on another picture book for Orca that will tell the unique story of a lone sea otter named Ollie that made a home in a highly biodiverse marine ecological reserve near Victoria. I am excited to work on a book about sea otters again, after the publication of Sea Otters: A Survival Story, also published by Orca.
Isabelle Groc is a writer, wildlife photographer, filmmaker and speaker who focuses on environmental issues, wildlife natural history and conservation, endangered species and the changing relationships between people and their environments. With degrees in journalism from Columbia University and urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she brings a unique perspective to documenting the impacts of human activities on threatened species and habitats. Her stories and photographs have appeared in numerous publications, and her wildlife films have been shown in communities and festivals around the world. Born in the South of France, with family roots in Spain, Isabelle now lives in Vancouver.