Photo of the Day: August 2, 2015 "Butterfly at Lunch"

I shot this photo today while at the Minnesota Zoo outside in a patch of flowers. This gorgeous insect was feeding while I photographed it for a few minutes before it fluttered away. I intentionally blurred the background intensely to direct all of the focus onto the beautiful butterfly and the flower that it was resting on.

Monarchs and Swallowtails

I love photographing butterflies. Fortunately there are many different species where I live and my personal favorites (the Monarch and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail) are shown here.

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) which is shown above has a wingspan of up to 5 1/2 inches and usually is yellow with black markings. However, some females are black like this one.

The Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a slightly smaller insect that the Swallowtail, with a wingspan of 4 inches or less. These creatures are usually orange with black marking but some individuals in Hawaii are known to be silver in coloration. Monarchs are famously known for their long annual migrations from the United States to Mexico.