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Common Birdwing
Troides helena
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumArthropoda (Arthropods)
- ClassInsecta (Insects)
- OrderLepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
- FamilyPapilionidae (Swallowtails and Parnassians)
- GenusTroides
- SpeciesTroides helena (Common Birdwing)
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
15 Verified sightings at Kinabalu Park From 2019 to 2026
91 In all 6 parks
October 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 →
Recent sightings of Common Birdwing in Kinabalu Park
LIVEiNaturalistGlobal Distribution
Parks Where Found
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tangkoko Nature Reserve | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Danum Valley Conservation Area | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 3 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 4 | Kinabalu Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 5 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 6 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
Cities Where Found
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yogyakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Kuching | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 3 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 4 | Kuala Lumpur | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 5 | Jakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 6 | Hong Kong | 🇨🇳 China |
Closest Relatives at Kinabalu Park
Before you go
What are the chances of seeing a Common Birdwing in Kinabalu Park?
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Birdwing sighting in Kinabalu Park on a given day, based on 15 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 83rd most-seen of the 297 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 Kinabalu Park?
January and October
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Common Birdwing in Kinabalu Park on a given day, against under 5% in March, May–June, August–September and November–December, the lowest months.
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 Kinabalu Park the best place to see a Common Birdwing?
4th of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Common Birdwing sightings, Kinabalu Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Tangkoko Nature Reserve (Indonesia, about 50%), Danum Valley Conservation Area (Malaysia, about 20%) and Khao Yai National Park (Thailand, about 20%).
Which relatives of the Common Birdwing live in Kinabalu Park?
Same genus: Troides
The closest relatives of the Common Birdwing that you can see in Kinabalu Park (genus Troides) are Malayan Birdwing (about 30%) and Borneo Birdwing (about 30%), 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 Kinabalu Park (15 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.
