Common Birdwing

Common Birdwing

Troides helena

Daily sighting probability ~10% · With luck
at Doi Inthanon National Park

In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%

6 Verified sightings at Doi Inthanon National Park From 2019 to 2026
91 In all 6 parks
July Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Common Birdwing

Troides helena, the common birdwing, is a butterfly belonging to the family Papilionidae. It is often found in the wildlife trade due to its popularity with butterfly collectors. The butterfly has seventeen subspecies. The description of the commonest subspecies of the butterfly in India, T. h. cerberus Felder, is given below:

Upperside of forewings are rich velvety black with adnervular pale streaks on either side of the veins beyond the cell. The cilia is short, black, alternated with pale buffy white in the middle of the interspaces. Hindwing: the abdominal fold, the apical half obliquely of interspace 1, the termen broadly, the base of the cell and the costal area up to and including the basal half of interspace 7 velvety black, the rest of the wing rich silky yellow; the veins prominently but narrowly black; the inner margin of the terminal black border produced inwards into prominent cone-shaped markings in the interspaces.

All specimens have one or more postdiscal black spots in the interspaces, but never a complete series; in interspace 2 and sometimes also in interspace 3 these spots coalesce with the cone-shaped projections of the terminal black... Wikipedia →

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Tangkoko Nature Reserve 🇮🇩 Indonesia
~50%
2 Danum Valley Conservation Area 🇲🇾 Malaysia
~20%
3 Khao Yai National Park 🇹🇭 Thailand
~20%
4 Kinabalu Park 🇲🇾 Malaysia
~10%
5 Cat Tien National Park 🇻🇳 Vietnam
~10%
6 Doi Inthanon National Park 🇹🇭 Thailand
~10%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Yogyakarta 🇮🇩 Indonesia
~20%
2 Kuching 🇲🇾 Malaysia
~20%
3 Singapore 🇸🇬 Singapore
~10%
4 Kuala Lumpur 🇲🇾 Malaysia
~10%
5 Jakarta 🇮🇩 Indonesia
~10%
6 Hong Kong 🇨🇳 China
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Common Birdwing in Doi Inthanon National Park?

With luck

About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Birdwing sighting in Doi Inthanon National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 105th most-seen of the 153 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Common Birdwing in Doi Inthanon National Park?

July

In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Common Birdwing in Doi Inthanon National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May and August–February, the lowest months. That is one of Doi Inthanon National Park's wettest months, with about 330 mm of rain against 20 mm in February.

What time of day is best to see a Common Birdwing?

Between 9 am and noon

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Birdwing sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Which relatives of the Common Birdwing live in Doi Inthanon National Park?

Same family: Papilionidae

The closest relatives of the Common Birdwing that you can see in Doi Inthanon National Park (family Papilionidae, Swallowtails and Parnassians) are Lime Swallowtail (about 10%), Paris Peacock Swallowtail (about 10%) and White Dragontail Butterfly (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Common Birdwing sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Common Birdwing is recorded against all the insects logged in Doi Inthanon National Park (6 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.

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