I was out in the garden and thought I was watching a hummingbird in the bushes in front of my home that was allowing me to get oddly close to it. In reality the hummingbird will not allow you to get within several yards of them, this creature was letting me get only a few inches from it with my camera lens. I was able to snap 2 really clean pics of this little guy and was very perplexed with it’s origin.
After a quick Google for Hummingbird, the auto-suggest in Google brought me to the Hummingbird Moth, the exact moth I captured in these images is actually “Hyles lineata” commonly known as the White Lined Sphinx Moth (See Here) which truly resembles a tiny hummingbird (at a short distance) but when up close will not only allow you to get within inches but will also charge you as if getting you to stay away from it’s plant source. I had hoped that I had discovered a new species in my garden but I guess that I just found something really cool.
As a reference, the flower this guy was taking a drink from is my Red Bird of Paradise and each flower is about the size of a quarter.
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