Hummingbird Moths: a pollinator you may not have heard of

With the decline in bees, the pollinating insects we’re less familiar with become even more important. The hummingbird moth is so named because it hovers like a hummingbird, wings whirring, while it sips nectar and flits from flower to flower.

During this May’s blooming of golden currant bushes in eastern Colorado, there’s an unusual group of several hummingbird moths enjoying the blooms. In the past, I’ve seen only a single hummingbird moth at a time, attracted to flowering honeysuckle vines.

On this occasion, several hummingbird moths sipped nectar from these golden currant flowers for hours. Here are two videos of the moths among the currant bushes. The pale, bare slender stems are tumbleweeds that the wind had blown among the current shrubs.