Neptis hylas
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
Neptis hylas, the common sailor, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia. It has a characteristic stiff gliding flight achieved by short and shallow wingbeats just above the horizontal. It is also present in Italy in a humid limited zone near Gorizia and Slovenia.
Bengali name: চরবাতাসি Dry-season form - Upperside black, with pure white markings. Forewing discoidal streak clavate (club shaped), apically truncate, subapically either notched or sometimes indistinctly divided; triangular spot beyond broad, well defined, acute at apex, but not elongate; discal series of spots separate, not connate (united), each about twice as long as broad; postdiscal transverse series of small spots incomplete, but some are always present. Hindwing: subbasal band of even or nearly oven width; discal and subterminal pale lines obscure; postdiscal series of spots well separated, quadrate or subquadrate, very seldom narrow. Underside from pale golden ochraceous to dark ochraceous almost chocolate; white markings as on the upperside, but broader and defined in black. Forewing: interspaces 1a and 1 from base to near the apex shaded with black... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 7 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 8 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 9 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 10 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salem | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Jabalpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Jamshedpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Tuen Mun | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 5 | Visakhapatnam | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Naha | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 7 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Kalyan-Dombivli | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Ponnani | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Yogyakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Sailer sighting in Minneriya National Park on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 14th most-seen of the 44 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Common Sailer in Minneriya National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August–September and November, the lowest months. That is one of Minneriya National Park's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain against 340 mm in November.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Sailer sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Common Sailer sightings, Minneriya National Park ranks 6th at about 20%. The best odds are in Kanha National Park (India, about 30%), Bandhavgarh National Park (India, about 30%) and Periyar National Park (India, about 30%).
Same family: Nymphalidae
The closest relatives of the Common Sailer that you can see in Minneriya National Park (family Nymphalidae, Brush-footed Butterflies) are Common Crow (about 30%), White Four Ring (about 30%) and Blue Tiger (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Sailer is recorded against all the insects logged in Minneriya National Park (12 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.
