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Moths That Look Like Hummingbirds

Many species of hawkmoths are mistaken for hummingbirds and even hover over their food flower while they suck up nectar through their long tongues. Some insert their forelegs first, to "taste" the flower with their feet. Like the hummingbird, hawkmoths have acute color vision and can see the colors of the flowers in the dead of night when they usually fly.

The Hummingbird Hawkmoth
- The hummingbird hawkmoth is a fat insect with grayish brown forewings with black markings and smaller orange hindwings. It has a fan of scales on its tail that looks like the hummingbird's tail feathers. The wingspan ranges from 5 to 6 1/4 inches. The sexes are similar. The caterpillar is green or brown with a blue horn on is tail; the caterpillars of some hawkmoths are called hornworms. The hummingbird hawkmoth is native to Southern Europe, North Africa and across Asia to Japan.
King's Bee-Hawk
- Like the hummingbird hawkmoth, the king's bee-hawk is a stout moth. When it first hatches from the pupae, its wings are covered with scales like any moth or butterfly, but after a while it loses much of its scales to reveal wings that are beautifully transparent. It also has a fan of scales at the end of its abdomen like the hummingbird's feathers. The caterpillar is green to greenish black and feeds on canthium. It's native to Australia and the wingspan is from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches.
The Hummingbird Clearwing
- The hummingbird clearwing resembles the king's bee-hawk, though its abdomen is more tapered. It's native to North America and like the bee hawk has clear areas in the forewings and hindwings. It also shares the bee hawk's 1 1/2 to 2-inch wingspan. The pretty caterpillar is also plump, yellowish green and has pale stripes along the back and a green and yellow horn on the tail. The mature caterpillar has eyespots along the side and is freckled with pale yellow and white. It eats hawthorn and related species.
Cizara Hawkmoth
- The cizara hawkmoth can also be mistaken for a hummingbird. It belongs to its own genus, has a fat body and boasts bright eyespots near the base of its wings. It has a dark brown body with pale markings. Its wingspan is 2 to 2 1/4 inches. The caterpillar feeds on coprosma. The Cizara hawkmoth is native to Australia. Another hummingbird mimic with a similarly plump body is the snowberry clearwing. It's found from Canada to Flordia and west to Texas. Its caterpillar is green, freckled and has eyespots.

Insects & Science