This very common butterfly is the one I keep seeing as many of the others are no longer around. There are much better photos in my gallery: Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima.
¡Pura Vida!
Banded Peacock Butterfly
Banded Peacock
One of the most common or often seen butterflies in my garden is the Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima (my gallery link) and maybe also the most common in other places I visit in Costa Rica.
¡Pura Vida!
Banded Peacock + Our Tropical Fjord!
The most common butterfly in my garden this year and one of the most common every year since I’ve lived here now nearly 11 years. But still a fine and interesting butterfly as is his cousin the White Peacock. You can see some of my other photos in the gallery Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima.
2 Butterfly Peacocks
seen on Calle Nueva that morning are the same as what I have regularly in my garden. Check out my photo collections in their two galleries with better photos than these two:
Gone With the Wind!
So it seems with most birds & butterflies! Except for two! A couple of Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds and a couple of Banded Peacock Butterflies! IT IS VERY WINDY! Yet I caught these two species flying anyway! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
And those were my Monday afternoon photos to get the blog going again! Busy with other things the last two days! 🙂 For more photos of these two hardy creatures, see my Galleries:
Banded Peacock in Windy Season
January to March is very windy here and maybe that is one reason for fewer butterflies, but one of the larger and more colorful ones that keeps hang on around my gardens is the Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima (my gallery link). While several Yellows fly around high in the trees and never seem to land for a photo and a few Skippers can be seen close to the ground, it is mainly these Banded Peacocks who frequent my gardens now.
¡Pura Vida!
Hanging on in Off-season
This Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima (my gallery link) is the most obvious butterfly to still be around during these months of fewer butterflies. Here in the Central Valley the best time for the most butterflies is May-October which is the bulk of the Rainy Season, which I cannot explain, because they do not usually come out when raining. But now, the wind is just as big a problem and it is more frequent than the rain is during rainy season. The irony is that this is the peak tourist season until May and thus tourist see very few butterflies except those captive in the butterfly gardens. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Banded Peacock, Dark & Light
One of the more common butterflies all over Costa Rica is this Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima (my gallery link) and as these two recent photos in my garden show, the top of its wings are a very dark brown & red with a brilliant white while the bottom of the wings are paler or a light brown and red. Of course, as always in nature, there are a few exceptions or variations, but not many in this species. See my gallery linked above. It is another of the many species found only in Central America & Mexico.
¡Pura Vida!
Two Peacocks . . .
. . . BUTTERFLIES that is! Yes, two of the most common butterflies where I live and maybe over most of Costa Rica are the Banded Peacock, Anartia Fatima (only in Central America & Mexico) and the lace-like White Peacock, Anartia Jatrophae (from Argentina up through the deep south of the U.S.). Both names are linked to my galleries of each with better photos I’ve made of them all over Costa Rica. And below is one photo of each made recently in Atenas . . .
Banded Peacock Butterfly
It’s April 1 in Costa Rica and the Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush are “singing in the rain” says tradition, meaning that next month begins our rainy season or our “winter” (invierno) and it is not only the greener and fresher time of year for me, but the time (May-November) that I see more butterflies, at least at my house in the Central Valley. And this Banded Peacock is one of the regulars here. Here’s an early one who looks a little weathered and I would think that is because of all the wind we’ve had since December. But windless rain is coming along with a lot more butterflies when we experience a “winter” that is more like Spring in the north! 🙂
See more of these in my Banded Peacock Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!