It's a BIRD?

ronjhall · Jan 25, 2002

It\'s a BIRD?

I've been sorting through pictures that we took last summer while on vacation. A couple of them were taken one evening while setting on our friends patio. Something started to fly around us and into a Petunia flower box. At first it looked like a large moth. But after watching it for a while we figured it must be a young Humming Bird. I was able to get a couple of pictures before it flew away. It's body was about ¾" long and it's beak looked like it was almost the same length.
Do the pictures show a bird or insect? With all the different vocations and hobbyist on TBN. /w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif I figured someone would be able to identify what creature is in the picture. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

ronjhall · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

Oops!
Hit enter before I posted the picture. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

ronjhall · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

Here is a couple of close ups. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

Bird · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

In my uneducated opinion, it ain't a bird. Never seen one with antenna./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif I'll say it's a moth, but as for what variety, no idea./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

CSAW · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

I have to vote bug, moth, etc.

GlueGuy · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

I'll go along with Bird. It is definitely not a bird; it has no tail. The thorax looks like some kind of moth, but I have no idea what kind. I'll forward this to a friend that is into entimology.

ronjhall · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

Bird
I don't know it those are antenna or just the edge of a flower. The creature did have a beak and was going from flower to flower like a Humming Bird. Sure wish I could have gotten more pictures from a different angle.

cp1969 · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

Looks to me like it has four wings. I thought birds only had two.

TresCrows · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

It is a moth, a similar moth, though not as large, is a frequent visitor of gardens in the south in the late evening. The critter you have here clearly has a segmented body and well developed thorax, four wings and antena and I can see the compound eye. There are hummingbirds in this size range but this picture is of a moth. Amazing how evolution can produce such a similar architecture in two such such creatures, an insect and a hummingbird, that have such distant relationships in the tree of life.
J

ronjhall · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

GlueGuy

<font color=blue>entimology</font color=blue>

Another word to add to my TBN Vocabulary. /w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif

/w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif My spell checker says entomology. But I don't trust it. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Thanks I would like to know what it is.
I know what the moth that comes from a Tomato Worm looks like. That was my first thought when I saw it. But everyone tried to direct me toward the Humming Bird.
My friends place is North East of Toronto.

ronjhall · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

cp1969
I didn't think of that.

Harv · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

As a kid, I collected butterflies and moths (yes, some moths are absolutely beautiful), and what I see in your picture resembles the sphinx moths I had in my collection. Don't have the collection any more, of course, but take a look at , resembling what I had, and maybe <A target="_blank" HREF=http://snapper.bio.umass.edu/kunkel/Moths/strecher_xiii.html>these, which I think comes closer to yours.

Mine had a wingspan of about 5-1/2 inches (not the largest moths I had, by the way), and I'm not sure how big the other varieties get. The feathery antennae and chubby, fuzzy body, as I recall, are among the characteristics that make it a moth, as opposed to a butterfly. /w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif

ronjhall · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

Harv
Thanks. I'll have to do some research to find out this moth's life cycle.

StoneHeartFarm · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

Ron,

We got those up here in NW Michigan too. It's a moth, but I can't remember the name. I keep thinking "Lunar Moth," but I don't think that's right. They do get quite big. Just wait till one hits the screen on the open window by your head /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif.

SHF

Bird · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

Ron, I mentioned the antennae because it was one of the first things I thought I could see, but the wings and body also are not anything like any of the hummingbird varieties I know of. If you don't find that moth in the links Harv provided, you might try or <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/moths/thumb/thumb.htm> this list of moths. Of course, you'll have over 400 pictures to select from./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

ronjhall · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

Bird
That should keep me busy for awhile. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif
Now I have to get my wife to take me out to dinner tomorrow evening./w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif She wanted it to be a BIRD!!! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

GlueGuy · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

<font color=blue>My spell checker says entomology. But I don't trust it.</font color=blue>

There I go again /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

GlueGuy · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

Looks like #13 on that plate is pretty darn close. The only problem is I'm color blind, and subtle color variations are beyond my design spec. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Wheeldog · Jan 25, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

My brother and his wife are bird-watchers, and I've heard them talk before of "hummingbird moths", and I think that is what you have there. I've never actually seen one.

The species name is Hemaris thysbe.

Rob

Mike_Dumond · Jan 26, 2002

Re: It\'s a BIRD?

The hummingbird moths have, as a rule, a more transparrent wing. This strikes me as one of the tiger moth varieties. Only about a million of those. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif