Grand Cayman Butterflies

Grand Cayman butterflies come in many shapes, colors, and sizes from tiny blue ones to large swallowtails. They brighten any visit to the Cayman countryside and this page captures just some of them.

Good places to see butterflies on Grand Cayman include, the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, Governor Michael Gore’s Bird Sanctuary, and the East End.

However, anywhere there are flowering shrubs, like your resort, among the shrubs that back the beaches, or along the roadsides, you’ll see butterflies flitting about.

This butterfly is a White Peacock, which we saw when visiting Governor Gore’s Bird Sanctuary. Another great place to see native butterflies is the Botanic Park.

And what butterflies, they come in all shapes, sizes and colors — particularly colors. The images on this page give you a sampling but you have to see them yourself to really appreciate them.

Of course a bright Cayman sun, sky and flowers provide the perfect backdrop and make for great photos — if the pesky little critters will stay still long enough to be photographed, which isn’t often in my experience:-)

This butterfly is either a Queen or a Soldier. They’re part of the same family as the Monarch, as the white spotted body would suggest, but the Queen and Soldier are hard to tell apart. Only fine details around the arrangement of the spots help an expert.

The Malachite butterfly, with its green coloring, particularly on the upper side of the wings, is found throughout the semi-tropical Americas and the Caribbean.

It may not look very green in this photo but, if you look closely, you can see green patches like eyes in the center of its wings.

This butterfly, the Cayman Zoe Julia, sounds like a very posh local girl. And, as she’s certainly seen mostly around that other posh girl’s garden, the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, maybe she is:-)

The Mangrove Buckeye is one of the more common butterflies on Grand Cayman, not surprisingly because half the island is made up of mangrove forest. You can best see the mangroves by kayak, boat or by snorkeling with one of the companies offering these trips. They’re a great way to experience Grand Cayman.

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