Nature (TV Series) Super Hummingbirds (2016) User Reviews

A delightful look at hummingbirds.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 9 April 2019]

This installment of "Nature" is about the hummingbird. With advances in technology, researchers are able to use high speed cinematography to slow down these diminutive birds...making it exciting to watch, as hummingbirds in the wild are hard to see because they are so small and fast. Among the topics covered is the distribution of the birds, the high metabolism, the sex life as well as how they survive and thrive in extreme situations--such as high altitudes.

Overall, very informative, fascinating and worth your time.

Fantastic Photography but Poor on Evolution

[eiremike-84699 · 7/10 · 25 November 2016]

This documentary gets a 10 for the photography and a 10 for the science that the scientists are shown conducting, but a big 0 for the frequent references to "design" or suggestions that the creatures are somehow deciding to adapt themselves to their environments in particular ways. This kind of casual misrepresentation of evolution does a profound disservice to one of the most powerful scientific ideas in the history of humankind. David Attenborough, by way of contrast, always gets this kind of thing right, referring to evolution as a process that operates blindly on creatures without conscious intent or goal. Many of the American produced (or dubbed) nature documentaries take the inaccurate approach of Super Hummingbirds, which is a travesty.

This is very persnickety of me, but I also did not care for the narrator, Patricia Clarkson. She had a whispery, rather precious delivery that I found very distracting.