Limenitis lorquini
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Lorquin's admiral (Limenitis lorquini) is a butterfly in the Nymphalinae subfamily. The butterfly is named after Pierre Joseph Michel Lorquin, a French naturalist who came to California from France during the Gold Rush, and made important discoveries on the natural history of the terrain.
The Lorquin's admiral can mostly be found across the Upper Sonoran to the Canadian Zone, east to western Montana and Idaho. Known areas include southern British Columbia (including Vancouver Island, north of Emerald Lake), and Cypress Hills in southwestern Saskatchewan as well as southwestern Alberta.
The butterfly resides mostly in forest edges, mountain canyons, parks, streamsides, fencerows, orchards, and groves of cottonwood and poplar. Usually the butterflies feed on California buckeye, yerba santa, privet, bird droppings, and dung. They are extremely territorial and will attack any intruders into their habitat, including large birds.
The Lorquin's admiral has brown-black wings, each with a row of white spots across it. Its forewings have orange tips. Wingspan: 47 to 71 mm; females are generally larger than males. Larvae are usually... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Glacier National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Yosemite National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lorquin's Admiral sighting in Great Bear Rainforest on a given day, based on 55 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 13th most-seen of the 235 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June to August
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Lorquin's Admiral in Great Bear Rainforest on a given day, against under 5% in October to May, the lowest months. Those are among Great Bear Rainforest's driest months, with about 150 mm of rain a month against 480 mm in November.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lorquin's Admiral sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Lorquin's Admiral sightings, Great Bear Rainforest ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Glacier National Park (United States, about 20%), Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (United States, about 20%) and Yosemite National Park (United States, about 20%).
Same family: Nymphalidae
The closest relatives of the Lorquin's Admiral that you can see in Great Bear Rainforest (family Nymphalidae, Brush-footed Butterflies) are Mourning Cloak (about 10%), Milbert's Tortoiseshell (about 10%) and Common Wood-Nymph (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lorquin's Admiral is recorded against all the insects logged in Great Bear Rainforest (55 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.
