Sitting on my deck on a sunny afternoon with my good friend, we happened to see what she thought was a Hummingbird and what I thought was an insect. It was zipping around much like a Hummingbird, and going from petunia blossom to petunia blossom as the hummers do. And it did have a hummers long beak sort of thing… along with a pair of long black antennae! And it was brown – a hummer color we do not have on the East coast… It was really too small for a Hummingbird, despite the fact that hummers are very tiny - about 4 1/2" long. In a way, it looked like a large brown moth – with a bright orange rump spot! Then again, it had dragonfly-like wings! What on earth was it???
My dear friend looked it up on-line under: hummingbird+insect. Duh! She discovered that it was a Clearwing Hummingbird Insect – also known as a copycat! Well, goes to show that we both were right, as per usual!
Hope you enjoy the photos! We had a great time with it...playing around as much with the symbolism of everything involved. We especially liked the 'copycat' image - maybe we should both pretend to be like a Hummingbird - in true copycat fashion - on our way to authentically becoming like Hummingbird...
WOW!! This is an amazing little beastie! I had no idea insects mimicked birds - wow!
ReplyDeleteOne of the top things on the list of Very Important Things To Do Before I Die is to see real live hummingbirds in nature....
that wasn't really anon it was meeeeeeeee!
ReplyDeleteI've had these in my garden and they just make you stop dead in your tracks, don't they? How amazing. I, too, thought Hummingbird? Took pictures and a horticulturalist friend identified it for me. It came around the year I started planting flowers specifically to attract Hummingbirds, which also came around and were just as fascinating as that bug. But, maybe the bug wins.
ReplyDeleteI just saw one of these critters yesterday and was totally fascinated. I just did a google search and found the answer here - thanks for solving the mystery! I hope the little guy/girl shows up again. BTW, this one loves my phlox!
ReplyDeleteIsn't Google aMAZing?! That's how I learned what the little guy was - cute as a button. Thanks for writing.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I just spotted one of these on our patio, yesterday. (South suburbs of Pittsburgh) I too Googled "Hummingbird insect" and found both this post and another from someone in France, who described it as iridescent, as was the one I saw. That article identified it as a humming bird Hawk moth. http://fishinsects.suite101.com/article.cfm/hummingbird_hawk_moth
ReplyDeleteSometing new every day :)
Life is full of wonders, isn't it? Glad I made this posting - lots of folks have found it helpful.
ReplyDeleteI have seen many of these insects since my butterfly bush and lantana plants are in full bloom. (The 'real' hummingbirds are also loving the orange/red lantanas)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I too found out what these cute-ish bugs are! I've never seen them before this week...
I also just spotted one of these amazing insects about 2 hours ago. This one had 2 yellow rings on its rump and had 4 legs. It was the oddest looking insect I have ever seen. Loves my newly blooming Verbenas. It stayed around for about 20 minutes. So glad to have figured out what it was. My Naturalist husband had never seen one either! Thanks for sharing! Bay Village Ohio
ReplyDeleteI was also curious...just saw this
ReplyDelete"thing" which looked like a hummingbird while at a farm/zoo with my children last week. I took the most beautiful pictures out of interest of this insect. Thank you for placing this on the internet for others to find!
Thanks for writing - it's good to see people still find it helpful a few years after posting!
ReplyDeleteI just saw one of these on my butterfly bush! We live in Canada. I have never heard of such an insect. But I was watering other plants and it kept coming back - I didn't seem to scare it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I looked closely, I wasn't sure whether to 'Ewww' or 'Ahhh'. It looked like a bug (with antennae, etc) but it was flying like a hummingbird!
Thanks for your post. Now I know!