BirdingNZ.net

Hi
I had a Long-tailed blue in the garden today ... don't get many in and around Rotorua - usually more common on the coastal plain.
Nice to see.
Cheers
Tim

Like waiting for buses - not seen one for ages ... then they come in two's ... another one today.

Beautiful. Thanks for posting.

Hi Tim, and all,

I had one, and probably 2, male Long-tailed Blues in my Havelock North garden this morning. I have never knowingly seen one before, and though I may not pay as much attention to blue butterflies as I might, it was so distinctive that I'm not sure I've missed many.

How common are they in NZ? I'm finding it hard to work that out, though I see that they are quite widespread.

cheers

Hey Sav,
I think we are all going to get to know our local areas and garden wildlife pretty well through the lockdown. Moth trap is coming out tonight!
I suspect this is a butterfly that will expand its range with climate change. I don't know much about national distribution these days - from what I've read they are NI and upper SI but that might have changed. Given they are gorse feeders, there is plenty of the food plant about. Would be good to know. It's worth putting your obs here https://inaturalist.nz/ would be good to build up more data. I have a backlog of things to add - maybe a task for the month ahead.

I haven't seen one in the garden this year (so far). Butterflies around here did get knocked back by some quite cold conditions in the late spring and early summer. Even the Monarch's were thin on the ground till about a month ago.

All the best ...

Tim

There I was, going for my local walk this morning, with Little Blue Butterflies fluttering along the side of the road and me wondering to myself how you guys have picked out the Long-tailed Blues that you have seen. That is, whether you had to catch them to see the detail, or whether I had forgotten just how small details I could see at a brief glance before I needed reading glasses. Then, lo and behold, one of the many little blues alighted on a Mexican Devilweed next to me and I thought I could see a strand of fluff that looked like it could be the "tail" of a Long-tailed Blue. And guess what, (sorry no prizes for the right answer) ? When I crouched down and crept a little bit forward, the butterfly opened its wings and I was able to see that the "fluff" was in fact the "tails" on the wings and I could see the spots on the wings too. So they are up here in Whangarei too. Nice to see something new when you can't go far from home at the moment!

Cheerio,
Pat

One Long-tailed blue around the garden yesterday. Nice to see.
All the best
Tim

I just had one in my garden. Not quite a year after the initial sightings.

cheers