On a clear day, I can walk outside and be surrounded by dozens of butterflies fluttering around. There are over 3000 species of butterflies here in Costa Rica, which makes up about 90% of all Central American butterflies and 18% of the world’s total butterfly species. This is another reason why I love living in Costa Rica!
Blue Morpho Butterfly (Morpho Peleides)
One of the most common and recognizable butterflies in Costa Rica is the Blue Morpho. The electric blue color on the wings is made from millions of tiny scales. These guys are big, about 10 inches wide, and they gang up to deter predators. When you see one flutter by, you can bet a large group is nearby. Magical!
Blue Morpho on an Orange Trumpet Flower
Underside of a Blue Morpho Butterfly
Another prevalent species is the Owl Butterfly. These are the party animals of the butterfly world. They spend all their time getting drunk on rotten fruit and having sex. The design on their wings is made to look like the eye of an owl on one wing and a snake head on the other, so that they can focus all their energy on their two favorite tasks instead of “wasting” it on evading predators.
Owl Butterfly getting drunk on rotten fruit.
When you look at it upside down, you can really see how much that spot looks like an owl’s eye and how the lighter color wing looks like the head of a snake.
Here are some more species I spotted from around my yard and various butterfly farms and gardens. If you are on my website, you can click on a photo to open up a larger version and scroll through the slide show. I’ve also posted more photos in my Butterflies photo set on Flickr, and will be adding to it as I discover more butterflies. The biggest butterfly farm in Costa Rica is down the street from my house, so stay tuned because it is on my to-do list for the near future.
The Monarch Butterfly is the only butterfly that migrates north and south like birds do, although I’m not sure why they would ever want to leave Costa Rica!
Yellow Pierdae Butterfly
Florida White Butterfly
Blue Wave Butterfly
Crimson Patched Longwing (Heliconius erato)
Sara Longwing (Heliconius)
Zebra Mosaic Butterfly (Colobura dirce)
Stunning photos, Erin!! Once again you’ve got me dreaming of traveling to your Costa Rican paradise! Spain is great and all, but it’s seriously lacking in the exotic butterfly department!
Outstanding Erin.
I thought the Monarch migrated from Canada to Mexico. I didn’t know they went as far south as Costa Rica.
@Herbie – I looked it up just to make sure and there are Monarchs distributed throughout Central America up to Canada. Within that North American spread, there are 3 geographically distinct populations: the eastern, western and Central American populations.
The Central American population differs from the others because they are apparently, for the most part, sedentary. Interesting. I guess those Costa Rican Monarchs don’t want to leave Costa Rica after all. 🙂
I guess they are like the Canadien geese who spent all year living around the Blue Cross SC building when I worked there. Plenty of ponds and lakes, and open land. Why migrate when you don’t need to!
Pretty!
Love it! Some of my favorite butterfly pictures I also took in Costa Rica.
Thanks Christy! The butterflies here are total eye candy 🙂
You got gorgeous photos! I find them so tough to take photos of sometimes. We were just at Iguazu Falls in Argentina and there were so many gorgeous tropical butterflies. I just love how much they are attracted to people and follow us along on the walks.
Thanks Andrea! THey can be tough to photograph – my trick is to take 5000 photos, a handful are bound to come out!
Great shots. You have captured the butterflies so beautifully. They are so colorful, loved the blue one(the 1st) and the yellow one the most…
Have a fabulous day:)
Aww thanks! 🙂