Bees in Australia can look different from what you might expect. This little creature buzzed into my home study yesterday, explored the room, then tried to exit via a closed window:

It’s a cuckoo bee. More specifically, it’s a Domino Cuckoo Bee (Thyreus lugubris). Why the word “cuckoo” in the name? Like their avian counterparts, cuckoo bees lay their eggs in the nests of other bees, rather than building their own nest.

Here’s a still photo of the bee:

After taking the photographs, I used the glass-and-paper trick to capture the bee, and released it outside. It zoomed off quite happily.