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Heralds of Heaven: Hummingbirds on a Hillside

Heralds of Heaven: Hummingbirds on a Hillside

Last updated on: July 11, 2026 at 10:05 pm by Verónica A. Gutiérrez

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Heralds of Heaven: Hummingbirds on a Hillside 2026-07-11T22:05:19-04:00 Verónica A. Gutiérrez

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Florentine Codex, Book 11, chapter 2, image 62

There is a tree outside my sons’ window that taps its leaves against the glass in the morning breeze as if in greeting. Ever since my dad died in January – 6 months to the day that I am writing this post – a hummingbird has been visiting this tree and gazing in at us. At times it hovers briefly before darting between the branches, daring us to follow its blur of colors among the rustling leaves. Other days, it flashes into sight abruptly, hovering for a moment before alighting on a tree branch and pointing its slender beak in the air as if alternately looking at us and at the hill upon which our home is built. It’s an unusual layout – our back patio door opens onto level ground, but the living room at the front of the house opens onto a balcony; peek through the banana trees in our neighbor’s front yard and you can just make out where the blue of the ocean meets the blue of the sky.

Hummingbirds have always made me smile. But this one? My sons and I are convinced it is Papa.

***

“The bill is black, slender, small, and pointed, needle-pointed, needle-like…. It is whirring, active [in flight]; ashen in color. It rejuvenates itself. It sucks, sucks honey; it builds itself a nest, lays eggs, sits, hatches its young, raises its young; it flies, darts, chirps. In the winter, it hibernates. It inserts its bill in a tree; [hanging] there it shrinks, shrivels, molts. And when [the tree] rejuvenates, when the sun warms, when the tree sprouts, when it leafs out, at this time [the hummingbird] also grows feathers once again. And when it thunders for rain, at that time it awakens, moves, comes to life.”

— Florentine Codex (16th century 12-volume Castilian-Nahuatl compendium)
Book 11, folio 24r; translation: Charles Dibble and Arthur O. Anderson, 1963

Florentine Codex, Book 11, chapter 2, folio 23v-24r

Mexican culture, like many others, associates hummingbirds with lost loved ones. The passage above outlines the reason for this association – the Mexica admired the tiny bird’s ability to reanimate following a period of stillness. Their “rebirth” led to these miniature creatures being identified as otherworldly messengers, able to travel between worlds. Many Mesoamerican peoples shared similar associations with hummingbirds linking them to their ancestors, including the Olmecs, Maya, and even the Inca further south. Other world cultures also associate hummingbirds with the souls of those we’ve lost.

My most poignant experience of the Mexican relationship with hummingbirds occurred a few years ago when I sent a draft of my children’s book about Juan Diego to a historian friend in Mexico. He wrote back to thank me, saying that when a hummingbird appeared in my story to accompany Juan Diego to see the bishop, he felt his mother’s presence; I didn’t know that she had just died.

The Mexica believed that upon death, successful warriors transformed into hummingbirds, escorting – and in some cases carrying – the sun in its morning arc across the sky. Other sources say deceased Mexica warriors escorted the sun for four years before returning to the earth as hummingbirds or butterflies. Sunlight is significant for male hummingbirds for it highlights their iridescence, in shadow their feathers appear dull. Though Mexica women who died in childbirth were considered warriors for they had “fallen captive” to their babies, they did not transform into hummingbirds, but were deified and accompanied the sun on its journey.

Florentine Codex, Book 11, chapter 2, folio 24r inset

Anyone who has watched a hummingbird has no doubt marveled at their ability to fly up, down, upside down, and backwards, as well as hover in place. They are little warriors, diving and darting to outmaneuver predators many times their size. Territorial creatures, they will also fight off hawks, owls and other large birds using their weapon-like needle beaks and tiny claws.

The Mexica war deity, Huitzilopochtli, “Hummingbird-on-the-Left” [from the Nahuatl huitzilin (hummingbird) + opochtli (the left, left-handed, the left hand)] is perhaps the most well-known warrior figure associated with these tiny birds. He emerged from his mother’s womb a warrior and famously led the Mexica in their search for their new homeland in Tenochtitlan.

Among the Mexica, the hummingbird also had a two-fold association with bloodletting: its needle-point beak reminded the Mexica of the cactus spines they used, and they compared the act of auto-sacrifice to a hummingbird sucking nectar from a flower.

Florentine Codex, Book 3, 10r: Quetzalcoatl bloodletting with cactus spines

Modern Mexicans continue to regard hummingbirds as creatures with otherworldly powers. One can find mummified hummingbirds wrapped with rose petals being sold as love charms on the Mexican black market these days.

***

My boys play Little League, and during my youngest son’s final playoff game in May, when he was one out away from clinching the championship and I was wishing that my dad was still alive so I could call and tell him about it, a hummingbird appeared near the scoreboard. My older son and I noticed it at the same time, looked at each other, and smiled; Papa was watching. Moments later, as my children and the neighborhood kids leaped over the chain link fence and stormed the field, the tiny bird zipped away.

My mother has been visiting us for two weeks and it’s been marvelous. She and my dad never came to see our new home because his dementia made it impossible to travel. One day last week, as she sat in the back patio reading, the hummingbird from the boys’ window darted into view. Despite having put up a hummingbird feeder months ago, I had never seen our bird come to feed. It took having my mother in my patio – my dad’s beloved wife, whose name was the last word he ever uttered – for our hummy to make an appearance.

Before she came, we were all wondering if my mom would enjoy her visit or if it would be too difficult to be here without my dad.

Turns out, she’s not here without him.

Verónica A. Gutiérrez

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