Clearwing Hummingbird Moth

Last summer I had a clearwing hummingbird moth visit my petunias. I thought he was pretty cool, so I bought a basket of petunias to sit on the patio in hopes that another would visit this summer. It worked! Last month a red and green one visited the petunias. Tonight a black and yellow one visited my butterfly bushes. He was smaller than the other moth and looked more like a bumblebee. And this one was even faster than the other one!

Here are a couple pictures of the red & green one I saw a couple weeks ago. This one actually perched in a flower for a second, which made it a little easier to get a picture of his wings.

Here is a video I took with my phone of the one tonight. You can see why they are named after hummingbirds; their wings beat so fast. This one never sat still.

This guy was in constant motion, so I'm actually rather pleased with the way these pictures turned out. It was almost as tricky as photographing a hummingbird!