Sunday, August 17, 2008

Giant Swallowtail or Canadian Tiger Swallowtail?

I really need to pick up a Michigan butterfly field guide. I was looking online to try to identify this butterfly - and I decided he's either a Giant Swallowtail or a Canadian Tiger Swallowtail. What do you think? Any help appreciated from my blogger friends!

UPDATE: The verdict is in - Eastern Tiger Swallowtail!!




12 comments:

DeniseinVA said...

Hi Shelley, is it an Eastern Tiger Swallotail? I am just learning but I found something that looked very similar at: http://www.mnzoo.com/animals/butterfly/id.asp#
The picture is the third row down, second from the left. I am just learning myself and I know there may be similar ones out there. Hopefully one of your more knowledgeable friends may know, and I'd like to check back as I want to know that answer myself. Great photos!!!

kjpweb said...

I'd go with Eastern Tiger Swallowtail as well.
But you can check here - I've got quite a bit of Swallowtail there...
http://virtua-gallery.com/wp/butterflies-2/

Cheers, Klaus

John B. said...

It's an Eastern Tiger. You can identify the tiger swallowtails by the marginal band on the forewing. On Eastern Tiger, it's broken into spots, but on Canadian Tiger, it's a continuous yellow bad. Giant Swallowtails have an all-yellow body.

I use Kaufman's butterfly guide because the pictures are big and the text, pictures, and maps are all together.

Shelley said...

Thank you everyone - I missed the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail in my searches!! Shelley

Wall-to-wall books said...

Wow! He is really really beautiful!
Very nice picture, shelley!

MuseSwings said...

I'm going with Eastern Tiger - but that's only because it looks very similar to the only yellow and black swallowtail in my Audubon Florida Field Guide. I had one in my yard here in Palm Harbor today!
He wouldn't hold still for a picture.

Cynthia

Shelley said...

Wendy - thank you!

Birdgirl - thank you for telling me about that Loon issue - I must get it now!

Onedia - appreciate your kind comments!

Museswings - I had a hard time chasing this fellow - took about 20 pics - and only these 2 I thought were decent enough.

The Birdlady said...

Well, looks like he's been identified - so I'll just say he's beautiful.

Leedra said...

I argree with the Birdlady, but you have a typo- I was looking for the Easter Swallowtail, couldn't find it in my book. I use the Audubon Field Guide, but am not happy with the size of the photos. (My husband bought it for me!)

Peggy said...

Fantastic photos! I really, really like these!

Ecobirder said...

Vey nice swallowtail pics. I have just started to see a few swallowtails around, it was pretty quiet here for butterflies at the beginning of the summer.

Texas Travelers said...

Great butterfly photos.

As John said, Eastern. We also use the Kaufman book. Jim Brock did a tremendous job with the workup. We always reach for it first/

Troy