Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Papilio glaucus
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail · Brooklyn Botanic Garden · 26 July 2025
An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail in the July border at the Botanic Garden, one of the most familiar large butterflies in the East. It lives in the deciduous woods and gardens from Florida to Ontario, breeds on wild cherry and tulip tree, and comes to a Brooklyn border for the zinnias.
Told from the similar Canadian and Appalachian tiger swallowtails mainly by range and a broader black border. Females come in two forms: yellow like the male, or almost entirely black, a mimicry of the toxic pipevine swallowtail that becomes commoner toward the south, where the model itself is commoner. A dark female in Brooklyn is a good sign the pipevine swallowtail is around too.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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