When professional photographers Noriko and Don Carroll moved to Las Vegas in the spring of 2002, they assumed they'd find a new project to work on, but they just didn't expect that they'd find it before they unpacked. They arrived at their new home in the foothills of Sunrise Mountain and stepped out on their back porch only to find a sign with an arrow pointing up reading "Be Careful!! Hummingbird's Nest Above!"

There, on a clothesline on the porch, was a tattered nest smaller than a walnut. To their amazement, a hummingbird flew within a few feet of them and started rebuilding the nest. They unpacked their cameras and began work on what would become "First Flight, A Mother Hummingbird's Story." It was Noriko Carroll's second book and Don Carroll's third.