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Description
The real life bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) is remarkable in its small size but in its bright blue or bright green iridescence looks nothing like a bee. But what if bee hummingbirds were actually bee mimics?

Speculative Bee Hummingbird. Scientific name: Eupseudoapis xeravis [true-fake-bee desert-bird]

Two million years in the future, a hummingbird descendant has evolved Batesian mimicry of bumblebees, imitating the stinging pollinators as a defensive strategy. Many existing traits of hummingbirds, from their hovering to their proboscis have been useful in this regard. The bird has evolved yellow and black stripes coinciding with rough feathers vaguely appearing as folded legs, dark eye patches to give the appearance of larger insectoid eyes, and a pseudo-antennae portrayed by a feathered crest atop the head. The wings are not fully transparent, but translucent as possible in feathers; while hovering, they appear fully transparent are hard to distinguish from a bee's wings. The mimicry is imperfect, and squinting may be required for humans. But for visually oriented animals the disguise seems to work, and the scent of pollen and insect prey approximates that of a bee on the bird's coat. When this hummingbird hovers backward (as existing hummingbirds can), it fans its tail to the front and most predators assume it to be a bee rearing its abdomen for a sting, jumping back to avoid the supposed threat posed by the mimicking bird.

Descendants of this bird a further million years hence would hunt bombardier beetles, sequestering poisons from the beetles to become toxic birds themselves, making it Müllerian instead of Batesian mimicry.

Description
The real life bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) is remarkable in its small size but in its bright blue or bright green iridescence looks nothing like a bee. But what if bee hummingbirds were actually bee mimics?

Speculative Bee Hummingbird. Scientific name: Eupseudoapis xeravis [true-fake-bee desert-bird]

Two million years in the future, a hummingbird descendant has evolved Batesian mimicry of bumblebees, imitating the stinging pollinators as a defensive strategy. Many existing traits of hummingbirds, from their hovering to their proboscis have been useful in this regard. The bird has evolved yellow and black stripes coinciding with rough feathers vaguely appearing as folded legs, dark eye patches to give the appearance of larger insectoid eyes, and a pseudo-antennae portrayed by a feathered crest atop the head. The wings are not fully transparent, but translucent as possible in feathers; while hovering, they appear fully transparent are hard to distinguish from a bee's wings. The mimicry is imperfect, and squinting may be required for humans. But for visually oriented animals the disguise seems to work, and the scent of pollen and insect prey approximates that of a bee on the bird's coat. When this hummingbird hovers backward (as existing hummingbirds can), it fans its tail to the front and most predators assume it to be a bee rearing its abdomen for a sting, jumping back to avoid the supposed threat posed by the mimicking bird.

Descendants of this bird a further million years hence would hunt bombardier beetles, sequestering poisons from the beetles to become toxic birds themselves, making it Müllerian instead of Batesian mimicry.