Outward Voices is a collection of personal essays from individuals who are doing their part to protect our planet. Leading travel journalist and sustainability expert and advocate Shivya Nath shares how a lucky encounter with a rare hummingbird on the brink of extinction helped connect her with a higher purpose.
As a travel writer, I’ve been privileged enough to experience some of Earth’s wildest wonders across the globe. But during the pandemic, when I began to photograph birds in my backyard in the hope of easing my anxious mind, I had no idea that one day I’d have the rare opportunity to travel on assignment halfway across the world and meet a hummingbird on the brink of extinction.
I distinctly remember that day on remote Robinson Crusoe Island, nearly 700 kilometers off the coast of Chile in South America. Here, fewer than 500 Juan Fernandez Firecrowns (named after the Juan Fernandez Archipelago) remain in the wild today. The sun had just risen above the Pacific Ocean, bathing everything in a soft orange light. But as clouds rolled in and gentle droplets of rain came down, I began to feel doubtful of my odds to spot the elusive bird I had been awaiting for hours—and indeed since my arrival.
But luck was on my side. A few minutes later, I caught the frantic fluttering of a spectacular, tiny, crimson-red bird, suspended in the air above the bright orange flowers of a cabbage tree. It was a male Juan Fernandez Firecrown, a hummingbird endemic to this island.
As he rotated his tiny wings (like other hummingbirds, Juan Fernandez Firecrowns don’t flap their wings but rotate them in a figure of eight) and flew astonishingly fast from one tree to another, my heart too began to race. I watched the red male as he darted about, hovering in a single spot before chasing another tiny hummingbird with glittery green feathers—a female Firecrown. In those fleeting moments, I felt overjoyed watching the magnificent Firecrowns fly about freely in the wild. In equal measure, I felt gripped by the fear of losing them from our planet altogether.
Having evolved in isolation on one of the world’s most remote islands, they’ve faced multiple threats over the decades: Loss of endemic habitat, competition from a non-endemic species and lack of resilience to the impacts of climate change. To imagine that these fascinating little beings might one day, in the not-so-distant future, cease to exist on our planet, filled me with a strange sense of foreboding.
I feel the onus is on the industry as much as the traveler to consider how we travel, and to realize how powerful our actions can be when we implement and make considered choices.
As the prime pollinators on Robinson Crusoe Island—which is home to more biodiversity than the Galapagos—their survival is deeply interlinked with the survival of the island’s unique ecosystem. According to the WWF Living Planet Report 2022, land use change (the destruction or fragmentation of natural habitats) is currently the biggest threat to biodiversity. But climate change is set to become the predominant driver of biodiversity loss when the planet reaches 1.5°C of warming from its natural 1.21°C baseline. At current warming rates, we could reach 1.5°C by 2040.
What I witnessed that morning wasn’t just a critically endangered species, but a living reminder of the interconnectedness of our planet. Protecting one species can protect an entire ecosystem, and vice versa. Similarly, small ripples of action and advocacy can create waves and entire movements.
The image of the Firecrowns darting about in the rain remained imprinted in my mind long after I left the island. It gradually turned into a reminder that we need to act with a sense of urgency as we live through the sixth extinction, but also with the hope that our actions here and now might have the power to change the trajectory of the world.
In fact, this very sense of urgency became my personal inspiration. Soon after my time on Robinson Crusoe Island, I made the decision to complement my travel writing work by setting up Climate Conscious Travel, an impact consultancy where I now work with destinations and businesses to integrate community-centric climate action into their itineraries and travel products. This can mean anything from designing carbon-neutral trips to sustainability research and storytelling. I feel the onus is on the industry as much as the traveler to consider how we travel, and to realize how powerful our actions can be when we implement and make considered choices.
On the other hand, travel also presents a beautiful but oft-ignored opportunity to undertake a journey within ourselves and reassess our role in the world. Away from our routine-filled days, awe-inspiring encounters with the natural world can help us identify the things that really drive us, and reorient our professional lives towards roles and careers that both fulfill us and aid the planet.
Perhaps that’s the beauty and power of meaningful travel. In the midst of a climate and biodiversity crisis, that type of travel can remind us of how fortunate we are to share this planet with an incredible diversity of species—and why it’s our responsibility to protect them.
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Shivya Nath grew up in the Indian Himalayas, and is an award-winning travel writer, author and sustainable tourism consultant. She pursued a nomadic life for nearly seven years, living with remote communities around the world, and writing stories at the intersection of travel, the environment and local communities. She is the founder of Climate Conscious Travel, where she works with destinations and businesses to integrate community-centric climate action in tourism offerings.
