[blam]

Yes, I do have a lot of time on my hands. I planned it that way.

[eggman]

First time one of these flew past me in the garden I thought it was a giant, mutant bumblebee. I always just called them hummingbird moths.

[Militiaman7]

This is an insect, like a large fly or bee, but it looked like a hummingbird

The picture was taken outside of Bordeaux, France 9/01

[peedee]

Cool. Now your next mission (if you choose to except it) is to scoot up to that shark tank with that pregnant shark. The tank has no males. Report back as soon as possible.

Did I read about this on FR or did I dream it?

[dennisw]

Because of you I now have to buy a feeder. I looked around and it seems I have time. They migrate here (Florida) in Febuary.

Where can you buy such feeders? In a nursey or garden store?

[MamaTexan]

Alas, all our little friends up this way in MN seem to have left already.

I've had feeders out the last several years here in central Texas, but since the cooler weather started yesterday, they are moving on.

One of our favorite things to do is to sit out on the front porch and watch 'hummer warz'. We mostly have ruby-throats with a few broad-tails and black-chins mixed in.
I've also had orioles on the feeders in the spring.

One of the more amazing facts about these tiny birds is that they have almost no sense of smell but their eyesight is so good that they can see into the ultraviolet range. That's why the flowers they are most attracted to have very little scent and are bright red, yellow or orange.

For some reason they are also very attracted to my husband. He can't even talk on the phone outside because they hang around his face 'humming' until the person he's talking to asks if we are having problems with our phone.

I think it's because they don't recognize him as a person- he's tall (6'7), skinny, and has bright blond hair and a very red beard.

They probably think he's just some kind of moving flower! LOL!

[galt-jw]

duct tape works wonders to detain reluctant mystery creatures.

[Tijeras_Slim]

We have these moths in the mountains east of Albuquerque, but boy do we have hummingbirds! Due to the drought, the natural flowers were late and scarce. We have a ton of flowers in beds on the property, but we were also going through a half gallon of hummingbird food a day for a couple weeks.

We had Blackchinned, Broadtails, Rufous, and Calliope. I've seen as many as 20 around a feeder (counting them isn't easy!) They'll land on your hand if you're still enough.

[Aracelis]

We have several (at least I think there are several) hummingbird moths that regularly visit my petunias on the back porch. I've only seen a few actual hummingbirds visit my feeder, so the moths are very welcome.

[grannie9]

I took this in my garden this summer, and they are here all summer long. At first I thought they were a type of Hummingbird too..but looked them up also. I live in NH so they are a little different looking up here I guess.

This our variety.

[justsomedude]

rods no one has caught one yet but many claim to have captured them on high speed videos. they are reptile-like creatures with fins that swim through the atmosphere in excess of 100 mph. the high speed creates the same fluid dynamics as a fish in water. they are all over. you just can't see 'em. (photo courtesy of roswellrods.com)

Might just be hooey, I dunno.

[js1138]

There must be something in the air about hummingbirds. Wy wife subscribes to a leatherbound version of the Peterson Guides, and we recently got a guidebooke devoted entirely to hummingbirds.

After seeing half a dozen of the critters we looked them up and discovered the same thing you did. Big disappointment.

As far as I could tell without reading the entire book, the only hummingbird found in the southeast is the ruby-throated. The southwest and Mexico have lots.

[georgiegirl]

We're avid fans of hummingbirds too. Every summer we put out 3 large feeders, and they swarm around the sugar water (we never use food coloring) like bees. We have also seen the moths that look like hummingbirds, but never at the feeders. They seem to love tarweed. We had one breathtaking and a bit grueling observation a few summers ago--a huge preying mantis sat at the feeder for days. We wondered about it but paid no attention until we saw it's "arm" braced around the neck of a hummingbird, sucking out it's life. The poor little bird just fluttered it's little wings helplessly. Have you seen any thing like that?

[Spirited]

Thank you for the information this post provided. It answered lots of current questions for us.

But then your posts are normally spectacular.

[SunkenCiv]

Old topic, very cool though. I was a little disappointed that the "recipe" somewhere above was for hummingbird *food* rather than an actual hummingbird recipe. Mmm, squab...

[mysterio]

Hummingbird imposter :

[TChris]

Here's a link to more pics of a Hummingbird Hawk Moth.

I was very startled by one of these suckers once. I was a teenager, playing Babe Ruth league baseball. I stood in the outfield, waiting for the pitch. I heard the distinctive humming sound directly behind me. I turned around and that ugly beast was just hovering there, seemingly inches from my face. (The closeness may have been my imagination.) I just about jumped out of my shoes.

[gdc314]

Hi Blam,

I had the same mystery for a few days. Hummingbirds feeding at night? After extensive googling, I learned about the moths. The one I was seeing was feeding on natural flowers, usually about 10PM or so. I never knew they existed until this year. Pretty neat IMO.

gdc314

[blam]

From: 2002

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.

[dforest]

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.

[mamelukesabre]

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.