Moths the size of hummingbirds!

Trila

Trila

Well-known Member
Location
North Central Arkansas
I want to start out by saying that I have a few nice looking patches of lycoris, but in general, they didn't do very well this year. Maybe because of the excessive rain we had earlier? I don't know.

Fortunately, two of the best looking patches of flowers were right by the house, where we could easily enjoy them.

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One evening, when it was almost dark, we thought we saw several hummingbirds feeding on the flowers. They were the size of hummingbirds, and they hovered like hummingbirds, but....we didn't hear their wings. It was hard to make them out in that lighting, but after looking closely we were able to tell that they were actually moths that just
looked like hummingbirds!!!!

Well, of course, I had to ask Mr Google! This is what I found....

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I thought that was soooo interesting! We've sat out every night watching them!! Apparently Goober likes them too, judging by the amount of broken flowers that are there now!
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Yep, years ago my hubs used his telescopic lens to capture a rare hummingbird. I laughed and told him it was a moth. He got all pissy and looked it up and was elated it was called a hummingbird moth. We were both right he proclaimed. I said no, it isn't a bird, just a dadgummed moth. I keep this photo as evidence. He still has this photo in his hummingbird photo collection.
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Real Hummingbird in our backyard
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The hummingbirds of the Galapagos vary from island to island, depending on the flowers on each particular island. The 'birds had to adapt to the flowers in order to feed on the nectar.

Islands that have flowers that are not deep have hummingbirds with small beaks. Islands that have long flowers hanging down have hummingbirds with very long beaks, pointed up.

There's no other place on earth that has such a variety.

In Ecuador, we visited a hummingbird sanctuary up in the mountains. ALL KINDS of hummingbirds. Small, large, colorful, drab. They just swarm around you, not at all shy.
 
Trila said:
One evening, when it was almost dark, we thought we saw several hummingbirds feeding on the flowers. They were the size of hummingbirds, and they hovered like hummingbirds, but....we didn't hear their wings. It was hard to make them out in that lighting, but after looking closely we were able to tell that they were actually moths that just
looked like hummingbirds!!!!

Well, of course, I had to ask Mr Google! This is what I found....

Image



I thought that was soooo interesting! We've sat out every night watching them!! Apparently Goober likes them too, judging by the amount of broken flowers that are there now!
emoticon
Click to expand...
Yes, we see them here too, some years. It could be interesting to look on a map of North America and see how far southern British Columbia is from South Carolina!šŸ˜²
 
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