Butterfly watching is a hobby

Hobby

A hobby is a regular activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure, typically done during one's leisure time.- Etymology :A hobby horse is a wooden or wickerwork toy made to be ridden just like a real horse...

 concerned with the observation and study of butterflies

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

. It also includes "catch and release" of butterflies. There are clubs, handbooks, checklists, and festivals devoted to the activity.

The Canada Day

Canada Day

Canada Day , formerly Dominion Day , is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act , which united three British colonies into a single country, called Canada, within the British Empire...

 and Fourth of July annual butterfly count, a census of species by butterfly watchers throughout North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, is an example of citizen science

Citizen science

Citizen science is a term used for the systematic collection and analysis of data; development of technology; testing of natural phenomena; and the dissemination of these activities by researchers on a primarily avocational basis...

.

Equipment used

• Low-power binoculars
  Binoculars
  Binoculars, field glasses or binocular telescopes are a pair of identical or mirror-symmetrical telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point accurately in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes when viewing distant objects...
  
   (7x35, for example)
• A butterfly field guide. Not all butterflies are readily identifiable from color photographs. The skippers, for example, are best identified from set specimens.
• A camera (optional)

Locations

Well-known butterfly-watching areas include Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

, the Amazon Basin

Amazon Basin

The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...

, and sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...

.

Counting butterflies

Projects in Sweden, the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands and other countries provide a framework for reporting butterfly sightings in an attempt to understand better what factors threaten or favor European butterflies.

See also

• Butterfly gardening
  Butterfly gardening
  Butterfly gardening is a growing school of gardening, specifically wildlife gardening, that is aimed at creating an environment that attracts butterflies, as well as certain moths, such as those in the Hemaris genus. Butterfly gardening is often aimed at inviting those butterflies and moths to lay...
  
  
• Butterfly field guides by region
• Lepidopterist
  Lepidopterist
  A lepidopterist is a person who specialises in the study of Lepidoptera, members of an order encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
  
  

External links

• North American Butterfly Association (NABA)
• Butterflying to Amazonia
• The Lepidopterists' Society
• Carolina Butterfly Society
• Butterflies of North Carolina
• Massachusetts Butterfly Club (chapter of NABA)
• Butterfly Watching Basics
• The Mulberry Wing - Field notes of the New York City and North Jersey Butterfly Clubs.
• Butterfly Conservation - The main UK organisation.
• NABA South Texas, America's Butterfly Capital (chapter of NABA)
• Butterflying in South Texas, America's Butterfly Capital
• Butterflying in Mexico and Latin America