Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Little Wing

Little tiny wings attached to a little tiny bird. I passed the cluster of bright orange cosmos flowers I've been enjoying on my walk to work for the last few weeks.
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They're actually on their way out now, with the chilly weather coming on quickly these days. But today there was a little thing flying from flower to flower. Can you see it?
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It's not a bee.
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It's a teeny wee hummingbird!
This would have been a very cool shot if I could have gotten my camera to focus quicker and the hummingbird wasn't being so frickin hummy!
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There was a gorgeous green and purple hummingbird that would visit the garden most mornings while I was in Canada this past summer, but I never had my camera handy. This little Korean version was tiny though, about half the size of its Canadian cousin. Very cute.

***UPDATE*** Well, whaddyaknow?!?! My little bird is not a bird at all! It's a macroglossum stellatarum, otherwise known as a hummingbird moth! My astute buddy Joel suggested the possibility in the comments, and after googling images of the hummingbird moth, he's absolutley right. Good one, Joel! I'd never even heard of such a beast!

2 comments:

Joel said...

I think the reason it's smaller is because it's actually a hummingbird moth rather than a real hummingbird. They look almost the same in the same in flight. But your middle photo gives off a distinctively insect feel to me.

Jon Allen said...

So that's what they are called. I've seen them a few times in Japan too. Amazing little creatures, thanks for saving me the trouble of looking it up!