Common Birdwing

Common Birdwing

Troides helena

Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Khao Yai National Park

In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%

16 Verified sightings at Khao Yai National Park From 2019 to 2026
91 In all 6 parks
August 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 Khao Yai National Park?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Birdwing sighting in Khao Yai National Park on a given day, based on 16 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 49th most-seen of the 221 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.

When is the best time to see a Common Birdwing in Khao Yai National Park?

July and August

In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Common Birdwing in Khao Yai National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January, March–April and September, the lowest months. Those are among Khao Yai National Park's wettest months, with about 260 mm of rain a month against 15 mm in December.

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.

Is Khao Yai National Park the best place to see a Common Birdwing?

3rd of 6

Of the 6 parks where we can rate Common Birdwing sightings, Khao Yai National Park ranks 3rd at about 20%. The best odds are in Tangkoko Nature Reserve (Indonesia, about 50%) and Danum Valley Conservation Area (Malaysia, about 20%).

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 Khao Yai National Park (16 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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