What is this???

I now have a bee hive in my backyard so I am very in tune with the sound of bees and other buzzing insects. I can tell the difference between my honey bees (Apis mellifera carnica Pollmann or Carniolans) and a local native bee that has a hovering habit.

Here's a shot of one of my girls taken with my cell phone while working the hive.

Good captures- the unknown is a Robber fly and they are insectivorus.
Brian v.

Yup a robber fly, protect your bees!

Do as Andres says!

Interesting. The bees defend their hive like crazy and in the process they aren't without their own defensive abilities. The barbed sting of a honey bee only gets stuck in mammal flesh. They can retract and re-sting other insects. I captured video of four honey bees taking care of a wasp earlier this year. Three of them held the larger wasp down and a fourth one tried to sting the wasp. The wasp got away as the whole lot tumbled off the landing ramp of the hive entrance. It didn't try returning. The bees will even attack ants that try to get at the honey. One on one I'm sure the Robber Fly wins, but its the shear number of bees that create the strength of a colony. My hive is approaching full strength now at almost some 50,000 bees. They should be able to withstand a few losses. Hopefully not too many.