Claudio Mello was conducting research in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest about 20 years ago when he heard a curious sound. It was high-pitched and reedy, like a pin scratching metal. A cricket? A tree frog?

HENDERSON — On a rainy day in Henderson, the garden buzzed with more than just the sound of falling raindrops — tiny hummingbirds darted between blooms at the Hummingbird Garden in Bender Park, ...