![]() In California, most red-tailed hawks have rich-brown upperparts and pale white underparts. However, the rest of the plumage might be quite variable between subspecies. You can often spot them perched on roadside trees, traffic lights, and poles, especially ones surrounded by open fields.Īs the name implies, the most characteristic feature of these hawks is their red tails. Red-tailed hawks are year-round residents throughout the United States and most parts of Canada. ![]() Read on to find out all about the range, habitat, visual identification, and general behavior of these birds of prey. Today, we’ll investigate all hawks in California. The most recent records say that you can spot up to 676 bird species there, which easily surpasses any other state. On a nice warm and calm night, you’ll find a surprising diversity of insects, and if you have a decent macro or hand lens, the subtle beauty and details of the moths will be revealed.The glamorous Hollywood, the fascinating Disneyland, the marvelous Golden Gate Bridge - these are some of the things that pop into mind whenever anyone mentions California.īut lucky for us, California also houses prosperous nature and wildlife. Most moths just perch on the sheet, bathing in the glow, so you’ll be able to get a good look at them. ![]() Then sit back while the photons draw in nature’s winged bounty. Butterflies, alas, are more incidental pollinators.īut if most moths are tiny and nocturnal, how does one get a good look at them? Lights, of course! For reasons scientists still don’t understand, many species of moths (including white-lined sphinxes) are attracted to lights, thus leading to the somewhat sedentary yet surprisingly exciting activity dubbed “mothing.” This usually involves setting up a white sheet between two trees and hanging a battery-powered UV light over it to attract your quarry. In fact yucca plants, including the iconic Joshua tree, can only be pollinated by moths of the family Prodoxidae, and it’s a somewhat involved process. Both butterflies and moths belong to the insect order Lepidoptera, and while butterflies are the colorful, showy ones that people love, they make up only about one-tenth of the nearly 180,000 described lepidopteran species! And because many moths lack the long legs and proboscides of butterflies, they have to really root around in flowers, in the process covering themselves with pollen and thereby becoming important pollinators. Unlike their cousins, the tomato and tobacco hornworms, they’re not known to cause much harm to crops.Įncountering such a beautiful and impressive creature as a white-lined sphinx is always exciting, and I like to think of them as charismatic and easily visible ambassadors of the breathtakingly diverse world of moths. In contrast to many other butterflies and moths, white-lined sphinx caterpillars are able to eat a wide variety of plant hosts, so they can take advantage of boom years when the weather is good. In fact, large masses of these caterpillars often cross roads en masse to find fresh food sources, creating slick and dangerous conditions when too many cars inevitably crush them. In the spring of 2015 some friends and I were visiting the Mojave Desert and saw portly, white-lined sphinx caterpillars furiously consuming the leaves of nearly every plant alas, it was almost impossible to not step on one while walking about. White-lined sphinxes are one of the most abundant and noticeable moths in the Americas, with a range that spans both continents and population explosions that must be seen to be believed. ![]() Check out the beautiful pink underwings that are revealed when the moth is in flight. Below is the footage slowed to 40 percent of normal speed. Just this spring I was able to record, in slow motion, several feeding at flowers in Bishop, California while most moths are nocturnal, white-lined sphinxes and some other species will be active during the day. This is a great example of convergent evolution, when two totally different organisms evolve similar adaptations. Flapping its wings furiously, the moth hovers at flowers and slurps up delicious nectar, looking very much like a hummingbird. Your large fuzzy visitor is none other than the inimitable white-lined sphinx ( Hyles lineata), a member of a family often called “hummingbird moths”! This busy giant (its wingspan averages about two to three inches, close an Anna’s hummingbird’s five) gets its nickname not only from its size, but its feeding habits. Can anyone ID it please? - Chris, PacificaĬhris, you must have the makings of a naturalist.
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