Hey there, friends, and welcome to episode 161 of Just the Zoo of Us. This week, I'm talking with a talented

and passionate illustrator and author about a tiny bird with an ambitious itinerary, the Rufus hummingbird.

We are going to talk about cottage corn nests, how wildlife moves all over our continent, birds that look like

bugs and bugs that look like birds, and a lesson in confidence from the world's littlest

dinosaurs. Just the Zoo of Us presents Rufus Hummingbirds with Alexander Vidal. Hello, friends, it's Ellen Weatherford with your favorite animal review podcast, Just the Zoo of Us.

I'm here with a brand new friend that I'm super excited to meet today. This is Alexander Vidal.

How are you doing today, Alexander? I'm great. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to talk.

Yeah, me too. Alexander, real quick. Can I get your pronouns?

Sure. I use he-him pronouns. Thank you so much.

And I'm really excited to be talking to you today because I have been kind of gushing over your book over the last few weeks.

Thank you.

It's called Wilds of the United States, the Animal Survival Field Guide, and it is just a gorgeous work of art. Can you tell us a little bit about

your book? Yeah, absolutely. So Wilds of the United States was really a labor of love for me.

I wanted to create a book that really celebrated the wide diversity of ecosystems and wild

animals found all across the United States. I felt like I

wasn't seeing a lot of material that really showed just how incredible the range of wild spaces and

wild creatures are that we're lucky to have here in the United States. So I wanted to do something

that really celebrated that. And I feel like it just nailed.

The parts of it that really hit home for me were obviously the parts that I'm the most familiar

with, like the Southeast wetlands.

Oh, great.

I'm from Northern Florida where we're right in that sort of marshy, like coastal salt

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