We were on the deck, just as the sun was starting to set and without warning .... we were dive bombed by this little tiny creature with wings beating a mile a minute - so fast you couldn't see it's wings. Hummingbird we thought at first; however, it was teeny tiny. Maybe a baby hummingbird? It was buzzing in and out and around us and darting to drink nectar from the flowers. We thought hummingbird. We thought ... way COOL! And a baby to boot, how cool is that?!! I'll tell you how cool, "wicked cool".
Of course, I ran for the camera to see if we could get a picture of our visitor. It was a little dicey with it being dusk and all, we finally figured out to turn the flash on ... here are pictures of our little "fly by" visitor.
When it got too dark for pictures we looked at the photos on the 'big screen' and saw that is was in fact NOT a hummingbird. After a little online research, we determined (pictures and supporting narrative) it was a White Lined Sphinx Moth (close relative to the Hummingbird Moth). Not exactly the same as having a hummingbird buzzing around, nonetheless ... pretty cool.
Right there in the middle of the picture, taking a sip from the red flower closest to the bottom of the picture.
Side view: you can see the color in their wings and how tiny it is.
Aside from how teeny tiny it is, you can tell by the two pair of wings that it isn't a hummingbird. If you look closely, you can see he/she has their tongue (proboscis) the flower.
Another shot, shows off their beautiful coloring.
That is so cool! I've never seen that before - never even heard of it actually. Stands to reason that hummingbirds aren't the only beings to fill that ecological niche, I've just never thought of it before. Thanks for sharing!
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