Quercusia quercus
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The purple hairstreak (Favonius quercus) is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae distributed throughout much of Europe, North Africa, Anatolia, Caucasia, and Transcaucasia. The larva feeds on Quercus robur, Quercus petraea, Quercus cerris and Quercus ilex.
Z. quercus L. (74 c, d). male above with a blue gloss and narrow black distal border, the female with the basal area of the forewing blue and often the cell of the hindwing bluish. Underside leaden-grey, with a proximally dark-edged white line before the outer third and in the anal area of the hindwing weak yellow spots. ab. obsoleta Tutt are females without any blue gloss; there occur also transitional specimens with the blue reduced (semiobsoleta). ab. pallescens Tutt are males with a pale grey greenish instead of blue gloss. In ab. excessus Tutt the hindmargin of the forewing bears a coppery streak. Courvoisier proposes the name ab. latefasciata... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 5 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kharkiv | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 2 | London | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 3 | Prague | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 4 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 5 | Copenhagen | 🇩🇰 Denmark | |
| 6 | Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 7 | Paris | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 8 | Munich | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 9 | Moscow | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 10 | Vienna | 🇦🇹 Austria |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Purple Hairstreak sighting in Birmingham on a given day, based on 15 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 406th most-seen of the 811 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July and August
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Purple Hairstreak in Birmingham on a given day, against under 5% in September to June, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Purple Hairstreak sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 10 cities where we can rate Purple Hairstreak sightings, Birmingham ranks 4th at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Kharkiv (Ukraine, about 10%), London (United Kingdom, about 10%) and Prague (Czechia, about 10%).
Same family: Lycaenidae
The closest relatives of the Purple Hairstreak that you can see in Birmingham (family Lycaenidae, Gossamer-winged Butterflies) are Holly Blue (about 30%), Small Copper (about 20%) and Common Blue (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Purple Hairstreak is recorded against all the insects logged in Birmingham (15 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
