Macroglossum stellatarum feeds by hovering in front of a flower and extending a proboscis roughly 25 to 28 millimetres long. Its wings beat fast enough to produce a clear hum, and it moves between blooms in short darting hops. To a casual observer in a European garden the impression of a very small bird is strong, and wildlife recorders receive hummingbird reports every summer.
Living hummingbirds are restricted to the Americas and have no wild European populations. Europe is not outside their history entirely: stem-group hummingbirds are known from about 30 million years ago in Germany, France and Poland. But none has shared a garden with this moth. The similarity is convergent evolution, since hovering to feed from flowers imposes similar demands on body proportion, wing motion and control.
Unlike most hawkmoths this species flies by day and in bright sun. It migrates north across Europe in spring and summer, reaching Britain and Scandinavia, and can overwinter as an adult in parts of southern Europe. How far north it now survives winter is changing and is not settled.