{"id":377,"date":"2007-11-18T17:08:27","date_gmt":"2007-11-18T11:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/?p=377"},"modified":"2026-05-05T23:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:36:07","slug":"hummingbird-mystery-wildkashmir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/?p=377","title":{"rendered":"Hummingbird Mystery [WildKashmir]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have always been fascinated by birds. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of ethereal paradise flycatchers in my garden, and bejewelled kingfishers in the marshes and reed beds that were part of my grandmothers orchards on the shores of the Dal Lake &#8211; now sadly filled-in to build concrete monstrosities in the name of development. <\/p>\n<p>During my postgraduate years in Jammu, I would often notice hummingbirds feeding on the Bougainvilleas in my garden. Since hummingbirds are not supposed to exist in the Old World, I dug out my old bird books once I was home but could not find any references to hummingbirds. Very little Kashmir-specific information was available elsewhere so I decided to create the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/birds\" rel=\"noopener\">Birds of Kashmir<\/a> website. A few years have elapsed since, but the hummingbird mystery remained unsolved.<\/p>\n<p>Uptil now. <\/p>\n<p>While surfing the net, I came across a picture* of the Macroglossum stellatarum, otherwise known as the &#039;Hummingbird Hawkmoth&#039;. My mystery hummingbirds were <i>probably<\/i> a species of large hovering, nectar-sucking moths active in the daytime.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/hawkmoth_wc.jpg\" alt=hummingbird hawkmoth><br \/>\n*Image courtesy <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/Special:Search\/Macroglossum_stellatarum\" rel=\"noopener\">Wikipedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, if only someone could confirm white peacocks on the President of India&#039;s lawns \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/sign.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/wk.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Learn more about:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Macroglossum_stellatarum\" rel=\"noopener\">Hummingbird Hawkmoths<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong><br \/>\nOver the years since the original post I have often observed these beauties in my garden in Kashmir.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 350px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-377-1\" width=\"350\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/hawkmoth.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/hawkmoth.mp4\">http:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/hawkmoth.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/hawkmoth.jpg\" alt=hummingbird hawkmoth><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/macroglossum.jpg\" alt=macroglossum stellatarum><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have always been fascinated by birds. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of ethereal paradise flycatchers in my garden, and bejewelled kingfishers in the marshes and reed beds that were part of my grandmothers orchards on the shores of the Dal Lake &#8211; now sadly filled-in to build concrete monstrosities in the name [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kashmir","category-wildkashmir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1931,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions\/1931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}