Birdwing butterfly
Troides sp.
Birdwing butterfly · Carlsbad · 7 March 2026
A birdwing on the netting of the butterfly house, black wings with a bold yellow patch across the hindwing base. Birdwings are the great butterflies of the forests of Southeast Asia and New Guinea, and the group includes the largest butterfly in the world, the Queen Alexandra's, with a wingspan over ten inches.
They are named for their size and the way the largest species glide on flattened wings more like a bird than a butterfly. Several Troides species look close to identical without a clear look at the full wing pattern, so genus is as far as this one can be called with confidence. All of them are protected by international treaty.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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