Hundreds of migratory hummingbirds have already arrived in the Boise Foothills, the West Central Mountains and Treasure Valley backyards.

These tiny birds are a delight to watch but it turns out that flapping their wings 80 times a second and traveling more than five thousand miles to start a family are just the start of their achievements.

Their cultural place in our human history is often overlooked, leaving us unaware of their affect on the pre-Columbian Americas or even during World War II!

Noah Comet will be speaking tonight about The Cultural History of Hummingbirds in Boise at the invitation of the Golden Eagle Audubon Society. He’s a professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy and joined Idaho Matters to talk more about his upcoming lecture.