In the case of the hummingbird research, both the video and the science were irresistible.

Hummingbirds fight a lot. Scientists know this, as do people who put out sugar water feeders to attract the little birds. But with high-speed video, the main researcher, Alejandro Rico-Guevara, was able to see exactly what was going on in these battles — stabbing, biting and what looked very much like the thrust and parry of fencing. The video had beauty, romance, violence and new scientific information.

And, from my point of view, there was a great evolutionary story, which only got better when I talked to Dr. Rico-Guevara.

Interviewing the researchers who do the science we cover in ScienceTake is the best part of the job. Dr. Rico-Guevara, like many of the scientists I talk to, had an interest in the natural world from a young age. But I also found out that his father-in-law got him into fencing, with the modern version of a dueling sword, the épée. I also fenced, with the épée, and so we talked about whether his experience as a fencer had perhaps subconsciously led to his interest in the battling birds and my interest in his scientific work.

The more I talked to him, the more I became interested in the science itself, which led me to talk to more scientists who studied hummingbirds and evolution, particularly the kind of evolution called sexual selection.

That’s what was going on with the hummingbirds he studied. Most hummingbirds have beaks adapted to the flowers that provide them with nectar. But in a few species, the males have beaks that are more like swords than devices for nectar drinking.

For every ScienceTake, Chris edits the video and together we construct the basic story and what the script should say. I write the script. Then we send it back and forth. Chris changes it, I change it back, he changes it again, and so on, until we finally have no time left and actually have to record the video.

At the same time, I write an article that is paired with the video online, and which appears in print. Usually these articles are short, but the tale of the hummingbirds was so good it ended up on the cover of this week’s Science Times section, in Tuesday’s paper.

Hummingbirds are tiny, but they contain multitudes; this week, there was plenty of story to tell in print, online and in video.

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