Summertime is a good time for flying. It's also a good time for resting. And it's a great time for hummingbirds and tarantula hawks. Here are two of these animals doing both.
A tarantula hawk flits from flower to flower. While the females lay their eggs in living tarantulas for their larvae to devour later, the males prefer to eat milkweed flowers.
A female Anna's Hummingbird, just chilling in the summer heat.
The bright colors of the tarantula hawk are an example of aposematism, advertising to potential predators not to mess with it. This animal is said to have one of the most painful stings of any insect. I'm not eager to personally verify that claim.
I took a number of pictures of this hummingbird with the wings frozen in all different positions--up, down, forward and backward. But I picked this image because I found it unusual and I liked the shape the animal makes with her wings forward.