Owl butterfly
Caligo sp. · Butterflies
Owl butterfly, hanging
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, 7 February 2026
An owl butterfly hanging head-down under a leaf in the butterfly house at Fairchild, in the classic resting posture. Owl butterflies are butterflies of the rainforests of Central and South America, flying at dusk and resting through the day exactly like this, under a leaf in the shade.
Wings folded flat so the pair of eyespots reads as a single face, closer in size to an owl's or a small mammal's than to anything shaped like a butterfly. They fly when the real owls are out, and feed on rotting fruit rather than flowers; the caterpillars are a pest of banana plantations.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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