Desert Butterflies — Sonoran Desert Images

One of many wildlife surprises in the Sonoran Desert is the variety of butterflies. I am primarily a ‘bird nerd’ but since becoming a docent at ASDM (the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum) I’ve been working on getting more familiar with other categories of critters. Being into photography, butterflies are fun to shoot, in some respects being the complete opposite of birds. Often birds are far away and even with long lenses it is usually quite a challenge to get an excellent image. Butterflies can be approached much closer than birds, although most of them are quite nervous fliers and sometimes it seems they will never stop and alight on something. How do they get all the energy to do that, fueled just on nectar?

Anyway, butterflies are starting to be a lot more common around the house and in the wash near us, as the temperatures rise. Here are three recent images I was able to get of three different species that frequent southern Arizona and the Sonoran Desert.

The Swallowtails are large butterflies and many of us grew up seeing whatever version of that family was in our area. The Pipevine Swallowtail has a wide range across the US - in the west it is found in the southwest, but in the Midwest and East its range expands northward and in places makes it almost to Canada. In our area, this species has 3 broods per year, so they can be seen throughout much of the year. This lovely specimen visited the Gooding’s Verbena in our front yard and I was fortunately where I saw it arrive and grabbed the camera. It turned out to be a cooperative subject.

This beautiful critter also showed up in our yard, this time the back yard, and once again headed for the Gooding’s Verbena (we asked our landscaper to put in native plants that attracted birds and butterflies, and this one is a major hit with the butterflies.) This is another common species, though in our area, only the southern half of the state. In the eastern half of the country it ranges much further north. The coloration of this critter is interesting. The wings are mostly yellow on the bottom, with some nice color highlights, but with much more black on the top of the wings.

And finally…

Just two days ago I went for a walk in the wash behind the house (where hardly anyone ever goes, so ‘social distancing’ was easy) and got some shots of birds, lizards and a poor shot of a smaller unidentified butterfly. Almost back to the street, I saw a butterfly flitting around and it landed on the rock riprap wall in the storm ditch that I was walking in. With nicely matching colors, no less!

This one is a Common Buckeye, with those beautiful buckeye ‘eyes’ on the wings. I was able to snap a few pictures before it took off. Common is really appropriate in the title of this butterfly, as its range covers every continental state except Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and North and South Dakota.

Slowly, the life list of butterflies seen in our yard and in the adjoining wash is growing, and I’m looking forward to shooting more of them.