Posted on 09/20/2002 4:15:32 PM PDT by blam
The last three years, at this time of year, I have put out my hummingbird feeders and I presently have 12 feeders hanging around my house, each feeder has 5-6 birds around it.
I have hummingbirds everywhere.
Now, over these last three years each evening as I go out to refill the feeders I catch sight of a strange looking 'bird' that quickly disappears so fast that I began to question whether I actually saw anything. Well, three days ago I finally got a good look at one of these critters.
It is a hummingbird looking thing but a little more fluffy and maybe a little more puffy than the 'standard' hummingbirds. I went to the library and looked through all their hummingbird books and didn't anything that looked like this 'bird.' I was beginning to think that I'd discovered a new species of hummingbird. This 'thing' does not go to the hummingbird feeders but to the flowers nearby that the hummingbirds do not bother with. I don't know what the flowers are but they are shaped like trumpets and I have decided that they are to deep for the hummingbirds to reach the nectar at the bottom. Last night I went on-line and below is what I found.
"We have had numerous reports of small orange and brown or zebra-striped "hummingbirds." These are usually hawk moths (or sphinx moths). They act just like hummingbirds, but they are insects."
These critters have a 'fold up' straw that is about six inches long that they fold out (like a carpenters folding rule) and insert into these flowers and get the nectar at the bottom.
Anyway, I thought I may enlighten some other Freepers to these Hummingbird Imposters
BTW, when the hummingbirds leave here, they fly for 26 continuous hours across the Gulf Of Mexico to the Yucatan.
I don't know what happened to the hummingbirds this year, I've not seen a one.
Albeit, I don't have as many feeders as I did back then.
Hummingbird Hawk Moth
You aren’t nuts. I have seen them here in Indy in my perennial garden. They like the phlox plants a lot.
At first I thought they were baby hummingbirds. But...after some studying, I found out they are called hummingbird moths.
I also found out they were common in the county just to my east.
I had never noticed one before until last year.
I’ve seen two hummingbirds this summer, or maybe it was the same one twice.
That’s a lovely pix; did you take it?
Just don't bury beloved pets or dead children there...
Trust me!
Mark
Where I come from, we call them hummingbird moths. I can’t believe you never heard of them before. At certain times of the year, they are many times more numerous than hummingbird birds.
/Salute
Nah. I stole it on the internet.
Okay.
My son is Mark L too.
It takes a really bad MoFo to feed hummingbirds. Now; if he skips and presses wild flowers...
Ruby-throats are the primary hummer in the East but occasionally a stray from the West flys through.
The Rufous hummer is seen sometimes.
All photos courtesy of my son
Rufous
Broad-tail 
Black-chin
Caliope
Nice pictures. I don’t think I intended my comment to be authoritative.
These moths are frequent evening visitors in my garden. They like the 4o’clocks and the pinapple sage plants.
Excellent pictures, thanks. I’ve never seen a Caliope in my area.
“I’m losing that “Tuff Guy” image I had of you, blam.”
Everyone has a soft spot!
Not this year...you all got all our rain.
The yard never looked better but you can’t go out there because of the mosquitoes.
And the rainiest city in the U.S. is ... not where you think…
Science – Do you think Seattle is the rainiest city in the United States? Well, think again. Mobile, Ala., actually topped a new list of soggiest cities in the contiguous 48 states, with more than 5 feet of rainfall annually, according to a study conducted by San Francisco-based WeatherBill, Inc.
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