Hummingbird Clearwing Moth, hovering
Hemaris thysbe
Hummingbird Clearwing Moth · Brooklyn Botanic Garden · 24 August 2025
A Hummingbird Clearwing holding station in front of a flower head in the August border rather than landing on it. A day-flying hawkmoth of the eastern United States, out in full sun in gardens and at woodland edges, and mistaken for a hummingbird often enough to have been named for it.
Hovering this precise takes a wingbeat rate closer to a hummingbird's than to any other moth's, and the long tongue does the rest. The caterpillars feed on honeysuckle and viburnum.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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