The 2025 Leo Awards were held at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Vancouver on July 12th and 13th. The Bird in my Backyard was nominated in five categories.
Eric Pittman built the house and maintains the backyard where the short documentary was made.
Here is our conversation with Eric Pittman.
HNMAG: Are you back in Victoria now?
Eric Pittman: Yes, I’m back on the Island. My lovely little sanctuary right now. I’m in the living room, looking out at the backyard, where all the action happens.
HNMAG: The hummingbirds are hanging out and building their world. That’s great! Was that your first time being at the Leo’s?
Eric Pittman: Yes, and it was great. It was unfortunate that our film didn’t win, but the crew that made it, their other film, Animal Pride, cleaned up and we were nominated in the same categories.
HNMAG: Ok, they stacked the deck. Have you seen that one as well?
Eric Pittman: Absolutely. It’s wonderful film.
HNMAG: Your film looked really good. Was it all factual?
Eric Pittman: It was all real stuff, yeah. That was actually the moment when I discovered Bailey’s nest after watching her for months.
HNMAG: Some shots are so incredible that you think, Wow, that must be enhanced. Did they use a lot of your own footage?
Eric Pittman: It was ninety-five percent Ryan’s and five percent mine. We also shot side by side a lot, so I have the same shot with a slightly different angle. Ryan purchased a special camera for the slow-motion capture.
HNMAG: How did the short film get started? How did Ryan, the filmmaker, get involved?
Eric Pittman: Ryan wanted to make a hummingbird film. Carolyn Whittaker, who made Animal Pride, is my neighbor. We’ve known each other for more than twenty years. She is familiar with the hummingbird work I had been doing. Carolyn introduced us. Ryan saw what I was doing, thought it was pretty interesting and saw a film in it. It took him a year to get CBC funding.
HNMAG: His other project just happened to be with a neighbor that you knew well? That’s quite fortuitous.
Eric Pittman: Absolutely.
HNMAG: Did you grow up on the Island?
Eric Pittman: No, but I’ve been here for over forty-five years.
HNMAG: What attracted you to move there?
Eric Pittman: I was a helicopter pilot, and I got into helicopter logging up in Port McNeil. I figured after a few years of that, I probably wasn’t going to live much longer.
HNMAG: That could be dangerous for sure.
Eric Pittman: Yeah! On my last day flying, I had a branch fall between the helicopter blades. It scared the crap out of me. When I got to the base, I saw that the blade-tip cover was destroyed. There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots. That night, I packed up and went to Victoria.
HNMAG: Before The Bird in My Backyard, did you have an interest in making short films?
Eric Pittman: I’ve been filming hummingbirds in my backyard for the last sixteen years. I have the world’s largest film library on hummingbird behavior. I’ve worked with BBC, CTV, ITV, and CBC. I have sold clips and gone on expeditions and I love the whole wildlife film process. I’ve met extremely talented people through hummingbirds so I’m sure there is more to come.
HNMAG: This is not your first TV project.
Eric Pittman: No, but it’s by far the best. It’s a real testament to Ryan’s production and storytelling ability.
HNMAG: There are so many hummingbirds in your area. Do you see predators as well?
Eric Pittman: A lot, yeah. Our neighborhood has had a lot of construction over the past several years. It’s left my yard and several others as isolated islands of green space. It makes for a fertile hunting ground. Like clockwork, a hawk will go through the yard. I lost two nesting hummingbirds in my backyard to hawks.
HNMAG: The hawks don’t go after just the nests? They go after the hummingbirds as well.
Eric Pittman: A hawk will pick a hummingbird right out of the nest while they’re sitting on the eggs. They destroy the eggs and everything when they do that. They’re very stealthy but it’s not a rare thing to see a hawk eat a bird in my backyard.
HNMAG: Do you have any films you will be working on shortly?
Eric Pittman: I am not sure about the storyline, but I have filmed over a hundred thirty hummingbird nests and there are a lot of stories in that footage. Now it’s about securing funding. I have too much footage not to use it. I put out footage online at my Hummingbirds up close pages or site.
HNMAG: What else would you like to share?
Eric Pittman: I have an extensive library of hummingbird clips. Some are funny, some are sad, but that’s life. I have seen so many birds come and go and sometimes I get very attached to them. They live for a while and then they’re gone. Half of them make it. You can get sad about that, but I look at it like a kid who blows soap bubbles. You blow some bubbles and marvel at their beauty. We all know the bubbles are going to burst soon, it’s just how long they last. But when they burst, you don’t mourn them, you just marvel at the next. I think of the hummingbirds as a little bubble; you enjoy each one while it’s here.
The Bird in my Backyard by Ryan Wilkes has received many accolades.
The Bird In My Backyard Awards and Recognition.
Nominated for Best Short Documentary | 2025 Canadian Screen Awards
Winner of Best Short Film, Wildlife & Environment | 2024 Jackson Wild Media Awards
Winner of Best Short Film | 2024 Banff Mountain Film Festival
Nominated for Wildscreen Emerging Talent Award | 2025 Panda Awards
Nominated for Best Documentary Short | 2025 Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC) Awards
Winner of Best New Director | 2024 Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
Winner of Gabriel Figueroa Special Award | 2024 Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
Winner of Best Short Film | 2024 Festival International Nature Namur
Winner of Best Short Stories of Nature Film | 2025 Santiago Wild Film Festival
Nominated for Best Factual Short Format | World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, The Buzzies Awards
Nominated for Best Short Documentary Program | 2025 LEO Awards
Nominated for Best Short Documentary Direction | 2025 LEO Awards
Nominated for Best Short Documentary Cinematography | 2025 LEO Awards
Nominated for Best Short Documentary Sound | 2025 LEO Awards
Nominated for Best Short Documentary Music | 2025 LEO Awards
Winner of CortoNatura Award for Best Short Film | 2025 Gran Paradiso Film Festival
Winner of Premio Orestiadi di Gibellina Award | 2025 Gran Paradiso Film Festival
Official Selection | 2024/25 Banff World Tour
+ 25 festival selections & counting
Eric Pittman found a wonderful passion later in life in his own backyard. He created an oasis for beautiful hummingbirds. He is inspired by their natural beauty, which has led to both stunning photographs and videos. We are looking forward to seeing the next project that he shares with the world.