Jill,

Cool sighting! I have seen these large Hummingbird Moths in Tacoma a few times over the years, mostly around dusk, and I watched a few of them feeding during the daytime hours in the middle of Eastern Washington while out birding around 2010 or so.

This page has very approachable information about moths in Washington: https://www.insectidentification.org/insects-by-type-and-region.asp?thisState=Washington&thisType=Butterfly%20or%20Moth

Here is the page for the Hummingbird Moth: https://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?identification=Hummingbird-Moth

Rob



--
Rob Huff ---------- Tacoma, WA
Author of Washington Disasters (Globe Pequot, 2006), Birding Washington (Falcon Publishing, 2004) and Insider's Guide to the Olympic Peninsula (Globe Pequot, 2001)
www.whiterabbits.com
On May 18, 2020, 9:51 PM -0700, Jill Freidberg <jill.freidberg at gmail.com>, wrote:

> I am over 50 and born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, and I have never seen a night pollinating moth. But tonight a moth almost the size of an Anna's hummer was pollinating my Valerian, in the dark. Silent, hovering above each flower, (at quite a distance so it must have a really long tongue)! Does anyone know if there are a lot of moths in this area that behave this way, or just a few?

>

> Jill

> Central District, Seattle

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