We have a hummingbird feeder on a shepherds hook in the flower bed beside our back steps and often I sit motionless on the steps to get a closeup view of the hummingbirds about 3ft away.

Two days ago I was sitting there and I noticed what I thought was a baby hummingbird about 3/4" to 1" overall length hovering beside a Blazing Star Liatris (liatris spicata), which is a flower that forms a large purple bottle brush flower head.

That little baby continued to hover for about 5 minutes, continually feeding on the flower until an adult hummingbird came to the hummingbird feeder about 8" away, and suddenly the adult seemed to attack the baby. The adult attacked five or six times but the baby was not dissuaded; it just merely moved around the to the opposite side of the flower head and continued hovering and feeding.

Finally the adult made one more attacking pass, then flew away, but the baby kept right on feeding. Something was amiss here i thought because Hummingbirds generally only sip for a few moments then move on yet this baby had been feeding non-stop for 5 minutes. Obviously this baby is not going to go anywhere soon so I got up and came inside to grab my camera in the hope that it might still be there when I returned.

Sure enough, when I returned the baby was still at that flower head, still hovering and feeding. Peering through the camera as I moved in for a close-up shot I noticed something was odd about this baby. It appeared to have horns or antlers or something protruding from the top of its head. Suddenly I realized, this is not a hummingbird, it is some type of insect about the size of a bumble bee, but it hovers in air while feeding through a long proboscis just like a hummingbird. The coloration is very similar to a hummingbird and it even had a broad flat tail like a hummingbird.

Finally I got a small glass jar and captured that insect for a closer look. When it was finally sitting still I could plainly see that it was a moth with a body almost the exact shape of a hummingbird. The wings are clear except for a line of color on the leading edge, and when hovering it looks exactly like a hummingbird.

Years ago I had a rather extensive insect collection but never had i seen anything like this, so I then turned to the internet to find moths common to this region that might look like a humming bird, and sure enough, i found it.

It is a "Hummingbird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellalarum)

I am including a link to the online Wikipedia encyclopedia article on the hummingbird hawk moth, complete with a photo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macroglossum_stellatarum