One summer morning after feeding several fledglings most of the morning, a visitor rushed in all excited and told me that I had to come outside to see the weirdest thing.

Not one to refuse the chance to see something weird, I quickly followed her outside.

“There!” she exclaimed with a tone somewhere between amazement and fright. As my gaze followed her pointed finger, I was a little disappointed. It was a clearwing hummingbird moth. I was all set to see something weird.

I looked at her and said, “Oh, that’s a hummingbird moth!”

“A moth and it’s outside during the day?” she asked.

“Yes.” was my answer.

“A moth? Really?” she looked at me quizzically.

“I kid you not … that is what it is. I wouldn’t lie to you … haha,” I said and this time I nodded my head for emphasis.

She then told me she had never heard of such a moth and asked if they were rare.

I explained they are not rare. In fact, almost any day of the week during the months when the garden is full of blooming flowers at the center you can see these amazing moths.

There are several species of hummingbird moths, and they are deserving of this name. They fly and move just like hummingbirds.

Like hummingbirds, they can remain still in the air in front of a flower while they unfurl their long tongues and insert them in flowers to sip their nectar. If the circumstances are just right it is possible to hear a hum like hummingbirds.

Hummingbird moths are plump little moths, and the tip of their tails open into a fan-like shape. They are usually of a reddish-brown color, at least in part. Like most moths they have a very long tongue, which is rolled under their chins, that they use to reach the nectar of long-necked flowers.

These day-flying moths are widespread in North America. Like the majority of moths and butterflies, the adult hummingbird moths feed on nectar from a variety of flowers, but their larvae need more specific food plants, such as several species of honeysuckle, dogbane, or some members of the rose family such as hawthorn, cherries and plums.

There is a better chance to see them here at the center when they are most active, in the summer when the bee balms are in bloom. They prefer phlox (Phlox), beebalm (Monarda), honeysuckle (Lonicera) or verbena (Verbena) so planting these plants will increase the odds to see these wonderful insects visiting these flowers.

The females lure the males with a pheromone that they produce from glands at the tip of the abdomen. After mating, they lay their tiny, round green eggs on their larval host plants, usually on the underside of the leaves. The caterpillars have a horn at the rear end and are commonly green, well-camouflaged among the leaves.

Dropping to the ground when they are fully grown, they will pupate under leaf litter. I am so glad that we live in the woods and the leaf litter provides a shelter to this beautiful pollinator.

In Pennsylvania, where there is only one generation per year; the pupa spends the whole winter hidden and the adult does not emerge until the following spring.

After our visitor left, I spent about half an hour trying to photograph this unique moth for this article. Not a bad way to spend my lunch break!

Jeannie Carl is a naturalist at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center in Summit Hill. The center rehabilitates injured animals and educates the public on a variety of wildlife found in the area. For information on the Carbon County Environmental Center, visit www.carboneec.org.