Troides aeacus
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Troides aeacus, the golden birdwing, is a large tropical butterfly belonging to the swallowtail family, Papilionidae. Troides aeacus has a wingspan of about 150–170 millimetres (5.9–6.7 in) but can be as large as 194 mm. In the males the forewings are black, with veins bordered by a whitish colour, while the hindwings are bright yellow. The underside of the wings is quite similar to the upside. The females are larger than the males and have dark-brown or black wings. The head, thorax and abdomen of this butterfly are mainly black, with small red patches on the thorax and a yellow underside of the abdomen. Caterpillars are pale brown, with long protrusions resembling thorns. They mainly feed on Aristolochia and Thottea species (Aristolochiaceae).
Troides aeacus closely resembles Troides helena cerebrus and differs as follows: Upperside, forewing: the pale adnervular streaks more prominent, in some specimens extended into the cell along the outer half of the subcostal and of the median nervules.
Hindwing: the cone-shaped terminal black markings in interspaces 2, 3, and 4 more or less broadly bordered on the inner side by a dusky area that is irrorated with blackish... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cuc Phuong National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 2 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 3 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 4 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 5 | Taroko National Park | 🇹🇼 Taiwan |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phnom Penh | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | |
| 2 | Guwahati | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Ho Chi Minh City | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 4 | Bangkok | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 5 | Kuala Lumpur | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 6 | Hong Kong | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 7 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Golden Birdwing sighting in Taroko National Park on a given day, based on 26 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 445th most-seen of the 447 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–April, July, October and December–January
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Golden Birdwing in Taroko National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, May–June, August–September and November, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Golden Birdwing sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Golden Birdwing sightings, Taroko National Park ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Cuc Phuong National Park (Vietnam, about 20%), Cat Tien National Park (Vietnam, about 20%) and Khao Yai National Park (Thailand, about 20%).
Same family: Papilionidae
The closest relatives of the Golden Birdwing that you can see in Taroko National Park (family Papilionidae, Swallowtails and Parnassians) are Common Windmill (about 30%), Common Bluebottle (about 30%) and Common Mormon Swallowtail (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Golden Birdwing is recorded against all the insects logged in Taroko National Park (26 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.
