One day a terrible fire broke out in a forest. All the animals fled their homes and ran out of the forest to the edge of a lake, where they all stood feeling discouraged and powerless. Every one of them thought there was nothing they could do about the fire.

Then a hummingbird swooped into the stream and picked up a few drops of water and went into the forest and put them on the fire. Then it went back to the stream and did it again, and it kept going back, again and again and again. All the other animals watched in disbelief, and many tried to discourage the hummingbird saying that it was too small to put out a huge fire.

“What do you think you are doing?” they shouted to the hummingbird.

Without missing a beat, the hummingbird looked back at the others on the shoreline and said, “I am doing what I can.”

You can find versions of this story all over the web, however it was popularized by Kenyan Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. The story holds even more significance for us at Audubon California, because new research says that one of our most beloved California birds, the Allen’s Hummingbird, is threatened with extinction due to global warming.

Let’s do what we can to keep that from happening. Learn more.

Also, in case you didn't know, voters recently named the Allen's Hummingbird our 2014 Bird of Year.

(photo by David Levinson)