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hummingbird hawk-moth (1 Viewer)

Hi,
Saturday July 19, 2003. My husband and 2 of our friends were touring the Botanical Gardens in Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada and I spotted what I've now learned is a hummingbird hawk-moth. Assuming I was viewing a tiny hummingbird with 2 bold yellow stripes on its posterior, I shouted for my companians to come. We were immediately opposed in our opinion of what we were witnessing. As we watched longer, I finally spotted the feathery antenna so common to moths. When we returned home last night, I plugged hummingbird wasp moth into Yahoo search and many sites came up. I am puzzled, though, because none have bold yellow stripes on their posteriors AND I could find no references to any spotted in daylight in North America (Canada). Now I wonder if I am right? Thinking back, I wish I had gone into the administration building nearby and reported it AND I wish I had taken note what it was so busily feeding from. Please direct me to more info on this unusual and delightful butterfly. Thanks, Nora
 
Hi Nora and firstly a warm welcome to bird forum.

I am no expert on this but there are several hawkmoth species that fly in the daytime. It may have been one of these rather than specifically the Hummingbird Hawkmoth.

Not really much help but I wouldn't give up on a possible Hawkmoth just yet. Shame it wasn't a positive Hummer ident!
 
Thanks for the welcome. Please keep your eyes peeled for more info on hummingbird hawk moths. It looked so much like a hummingbird that if we'd left earlier, we would have thought it WAS one. Thank again. Nora
 
Not only do they look like hummers but the feed and pollinate like hummers. I see these all of the time and enjoy watching them almost as much as hummers. Attached is a frame I grabbed from a video I shot Sunday 20 July.
 

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Great picture!! I was thrilled to see and hear that you see these striped beauties all the time. The one I witnessed only had 2 yellow stripes on its behind..yours is wonderfully striped all over. Thanks for the time you spent responding.
 
hi Nora. Your description sounds like a Nessus Sphinx Moth (Amphion floridensis) one of the diurnal moths in the sphingidae family- here is a recent image of one that I took on a lakeshore. Note the two yellow stripes on the abdomen- the wings are a bit blurry because they beat them constantly :)

having a hard time attaching files, will attach a Hummingbird Clearwing in another post..
 

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this is a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe)- member of the same family of moths but a totally different species. Hope this helps :)
 

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I was stopped dead in my tracks 2 nights ago, when I spotted my first Hummingbird Hawk Moth. I thought at first it was a large yellow jacket. The bottom portion of its body was black, the mid-section was a bright yellow & black. I also saw it again last night. I will be taking my digital camera tonight. I have spotted the cute little creature at around 7 p.m. each night.
 
hummingbird hawk moth

Dear Ingraham,
Thank you for your post. You MUST have seen the same as we did! How exciting. Hope you get some great shots. (I did not have my camera in Niagara Falls when I spotted mine.) Another member gave me an incredible website to visit. It had very good pictures of the HBHM.
It is: www.howardfamilyhomepage.net/page5b , hope this is of help.
Sincerely, Nora
 
hummingbird hawk moth

Hi! I know it's been a year since anyone's been here but tonight my husband and I were sitting on the back porch and what we thought at first was a hummingbird came to our pot of impatiens for a snack. We were only 2 feet away from it and it had no fear of us or our dog. It stayed for about 5 minutes, working the entire plant. I was afraid to get up and get a camera for fear it would leave. Upon closer observation we realized this was a MOTH! It appeared to have clear wings, (hard to tell for sure tho, it was dusk) and the abdomen had yellow and black stripes all the way across, like a bee. It darted around just like a hummingbird. The tip of the abdomen was pointy and turned up a bit, not blunt and feathery like I've seen on the web. I can't find anything exactly like it. Can anyone help? THANKS!
 
Hi Laurie and on behalf of the staff here at BF, a warm welcome to you.

Without a photograph, it's a bit tougher but, I am sure someone will be along before long with some thoughts on what you've seen.

It might be a good idea to start a new thread with this question as this is an old thread and I'm afraid once it is opened the reader won't go down to the bottom to see your new request.
 
KCFoggin said:
Hi Laurie and on behalf of the staff here at BF, a warm welcome to you.

Without a photograph, it's a bit tougher but, I am sure someone will be along before long with some thoughts on what you've seen.

It might be a good idea to start a new thread with this question as this is an old thread and I'm afraid once it is opened the reader won't go down to the bottom to see your new request.


Thanks KC,
I thought I should start a new thread, and I was just trying to figure out how to do that when I saw that this one had a new message!!! So I'll pluck my way thru this and see what happens! Thanks!
Laurie
 
Try just clicking on the Forum called "Butterflys and Moths" and on top of that sub forum there will be a link on the top and the bottom which will be red and says "new thread" I think. Just click on that.
 
Boy am I glad I found this site. We have been visited regularly by two yellow striped hummingbirds and I have been going crazy trying to find some info on them. Stumbled on this site through YAHOO and voila!!! they are Nessus Sphinx Moths. What beauties>> Thanks for the info.
 
Hummingbird Hawk Moth

This very evening I witnessed my first ever Hummingbird Hawk moth. I thought it was a hummingbird yet it wasn't as loud as a hummingbird...it was almost silent just like a butterfly it flew on centimeters from my face. I tried to take multiple photos as it was not shy about my presence as I tried to document the amazing creature I was lucky enough to witness. I will be returning tomorrow night to the front garden of my apartment building where I witnessed the moth this evening. I watched while it was sucking sap from flowers and moving to and from them in a very fast hovering flutter just like a hummingbird. I knew it being night it was very unlikely to be a bird at all and it flew so close and its eyes glowed so bright in the camera flash just like a dog or racoons eyes glow at night when light catches them at the right angle. It was so vibrant in colours I hope that I am able to get better pictures with a camera better than my blackberry camera which is too slow.
 

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Hi jivegirl75,

A warm welcome to BirdForum from all the Moderators and Admin. Glad to have you on board :t:

As you can see from the posts above there a few of species that behave like hummers. I am not going to guess which you have. It's easy over here - only 1 possibility.
 
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