Surrounded by large piñatas, shaped like red flowers — as piñata hummingbirds flutter in the wind above me — this is the start of a new immersive seasonal exhibit at the Ventura Botanical Gardens, celebrating hummingbirds.
These piñatas aren’t for smashing to pieces, but to celebrate these enchanting tiny pollinators and the flowers they feed from.
"Hummingbirds really love plants with kind of tubular red flowers," explained Joe Cahill, Executive Director of the Ventura Botanical Gardens. "Those are their favorites. Those plants have evolved with hummingbirds, and they actually produce a different ratio of sugars that's more flavorful and attractive to hummingbirds. So there's a long history of hummingbirds co-evolving with these plants that have red flowers."
Cahill starts along the trail to show me the exhibits, nestled among the hundreds of thousands of plants at the gardens, which take up 107 acres, much of it on a steep hill behind the city hall.
"Many hummingbirds in different parts of the world, in the Americas, have more limited populations now, for a lot of the reasons that plants have limited populations now because of all the threats we have to habitat," said Cahill. "Housing, agriculture, forestry, mining, it's had a big impact on reducing the plants and the habitats that the hummingbirds rely on."
He stops by a little hut that we can go inside. Perched atop the hut is a large sculpture of a hummingbird.
"Here we have another element of the exhibit, which is a giant nest with a hummingbird on top, and inside we have a mural by local artist Andy Payton, and audio of different hummingbird sounds," explained Cahill. "He designed the mural so that it's scaled for people to take selfies, so that you get birds of certain sizes in the background behind you."
Further up the pathway, we stop by a fiberglass sculpture of a hummingbird's head. Hidden inside is a video screen.
"We have these giant hummingbird heads that you can look into, and they have interactive educational videos," said Cahill.
Visitor Carol Spaeth is checking out one of the displays and is delighted to interact with the trivia questions on the video.
"Amazing, the whole experience," enthused Spaeth. "Just so colorful and you can't help but feel happy when you're here, right?"
There’s also a treasure hunt for kids, and it’s hoped the exhibit will appeal to all ages.
"It is a wonderful space to learn about nature. It's a wonderful place to get together with family and friends. We have a lot of things for little ones, like Summer Hummerz right now. The gardens are completely community-funded. So community envisioned, community built," explained Barbara Brown, who also works for the gardens.
The exhibition opens on Tuesday, June 2, and runs to the end of August at Ventura Botanical Gardens.
