Generally speaking, we are not a fan of moths as they are not usually as colorful or pretty as butterflies. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t seen some that are quite interesting, even if still a little disturbing. Perhaps it is because moths often fly out of dark places when disturbed that make them even more freaky in addition to their furry bodies. We did, however, have a visitor come to our patio this past week that was both a little creepy and yet interesting, it was a hummingbird moth. We had never heard of such a thing until we saw one in our yard and looked it up on the internet.
After a long day of working on our yard, we sat out on our patio to relax at the end of the day. We have a couple of honeysuckle plants at the edge of our patio that will often attract hummingbirds to our yard. As it had gotten dark, we were preparing to go inside when we saw what looked like a hummingbird buzzing around one of the honeysuckle plants, but we knew that a hummingbird wouldn’t be at out in the dark. We took our phones a took a couple of photographs, but the pictures weren’t able to capture any detail. It was clear that it was a moth, but that was all that we could discern.
Later in the week, we had a couple more hummingbird moths show up and drink nectar from the honeysuckle plants, so we grabbed our actual camera. We were able to capture the moths and actually see their colorful wings. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t still a little creepy when you see them buzzing around in the dark, but at least we know that they aren’t as ugly as we had first thought when all we had were shadowy images. Have you ever seen a hummingbird moth before and, if so, what did it look like?
What timing. I had never heard of a hummingbird moth, until today. Sitting on my neighbor’s front porch she showed me one enjoying her flowers. This one had color, like your photos. She said she also has seen gray ones. This was just before noon. Moths in the middle of the day. Always something new.
When we looked it up we found out there are two kinds in Colorado. We have lived here for 28 years and this is the first time we have seen one.
How cool is that. I have never seen one of those before
I don’t find moth creepy at all, but fascinating. It’s great you were able to get so many photographs, they don’t hold still long enough very often.
It took a while to get good shots 🙂
Your patience paid off!
Such amazing pictures! I have a post on hummingbird moths too!
Thank you! This was the first time we have seen them here.