Exquisite Birdwings in Slo-mo

[boghaunter1]

I doubt I will get to see these... anytime soon... in the wild; a very nice, short, kind of relaxing video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy23jSanzuo

John K.

[mothman55]

Beautiful video, thanks for posting. I was hoping to see O.Alexandra as there were many species in this video. I have never seen a video of a male O. Alexandra flying in the wild. There is of course the one of a newly emerged blue O. Alexandra male pumping its wings on a leaf that has been out there for a few years. Also have seen one of a female flying in the wild, but never a male. Don't think such a video exists.

[livingplanet3]

Beautiful video, thanks for posting. I was hoping to see O.Alexandra as there were many species in this video. I have never seen a video of a male O. Alexandra flying in the wild. There is of course the one of a newly emerged blue O. Alexandra male pumping its wings on a leaf that has been out there for a few years. Also have seen one of a female flying in the wild, but never a male. Don't think such a video exists.

New Zealand entomologist Ruud Kleinpaste got some footage of a wild male alexandrae flying circa 2005. Will post the clip here soon.

I'm also aware of at least one, much shorter sequence of a male filmed in the 1970s for a Time Life documentary.

[livingplanet3]

Here's the alexandrae clip (from the 2005 documentary "Island of the Giant Bugs") -

[Trehopr1]

Wow, amazing video !!
Words can't really convey the wonder and magnificence of
experiancing these butterflies (birdwings) in their natural
surroundings.

Many, many thanks livingplanet for kindly sharing this near
forgotten "gem" of a video !

[livingplanet3]

From ABC Science, another clip about birdwings (specifically, O. goliath) in Papua New Guinea -

[Paul K]

It’s a shame that IFTA doesn’t operate anymore.

[Trehopr1]

Indeed Paul !

The O. goliath video is equally entertaining. Fantastic video also.

Perhaps, someone can elaborate as to why IFTA closed (or failed ?)
and can answer what became of butterfly farming there.

[mothman55]

Thank you so much living planet for posting that video of a male O. alenandrae in the wild. It's incredible, I can only imagine what that guy in the video experienced. And to see it nectoring on a branch that he was holding, WOW. An experience of a lifetime. I had seen the second video of butterfly farming in PNG before, it comes up when searching birdwings or Alexandrae on YouTube, but had never seen the first one. I will be watching that one many times over, thanks again.

[mothman55]

I watched that alexandrae video a couple more times and I think that it must be a newly emerged, wings just dried butterfly. As it sits on the flower its proboscis is still curled most of the video, although it can be seen extended later in the video. I think the part in the beginning where it is flying must have been clipped from the end when it flys off from his head, so it would appear it flew in from the wild. And I can't imagine it jumping from the flower to his head unless it is freshly emerged and just testing its wings. But regardless, it is an amazing video and I will be seeing it in my dreams. And can you imagine what that fresh, mostly blue Alexandra would be worth on the market, kudos to him for releasing it.

[Paul K]

I watched that alexandrae video a couple more times and I think that it must be a newly emerged, wings just dried butterfly. As it sits on the flower its proboscis is still curled most of the video, although it can be seen extended later in the video. I think the part in the beginning where it is flying must have been clipped from the end when it flys off from his head, so it would appear it flew in from the wild. And I can't imagine it jumping from the flower to his head unless it is freshly emerged and just testing its wings. But regardless, it is an amazing video and I will be seeing it in my dreams. And can you imagine what that fresh, mostly blue Alexandra would be worth on the market, kudos to him for releasing it.

Yes, I have had same thoughts that this film was shot with freshly emerged most likely farmed specimen in closed (netted) environment and released later on. Could be that a pupa was found and used for this purpose. Nevertheless great video. I never had the chance to see Ornithoptera in the wild although have seen and netted many of Troides species while in Thailand and Laos. I did not keep any specimen as I wouldn’t be able get CITES papers for wild collected material.

[livingplanet3]

I watched that alexandrae video a couple more times and I think that it must be a newly emerged, wings just dried butterfly. As it sits on the flower its proboscis is still curled most of the video, although it can be seen extended later in the video. I think the part in the beginning where it is flying must have been clipped from the end when it flys off from his head, so it would appear it flew in from the wild. And I can't imagine it jumping from the flower to his head unless it is freshly emerged and just testing its wings. But regardless, it is an amazing video and I will be seeing it in my dreams...

True - like so many scenes from wildlife documentaries, this one was likely staged to some extent, but this was probably necessary in order to get the desired sequence, the parts of which may well have been presented in a somewhat different order than that in which they actually occurred. But, mission accomplished - he showed us a great piece of footage of a LIVE alexandrae, and a fine example of the species, at that!

...And can you imagine what that fresh, mostly blue Alexandra would be worth on the market, kudos to him for releasing it.

This brings up a question that I've been intending to ask about alexandrae; there seems to be considerable variability of coloration in the males, with some having a mostly pale green band in the upper forewing, along with pale green hindwings. Other males however, seem to be largely blue. I've wondered if perhaps this was just an effect of lighting / angle, but perhaps there really is some degree of color variability in the males of this species?

[mothman55]

Yes, you are correct livingplanet3, there is considerable variation in the colour of male alexandrae. The more typical form would be the greenish hindwings with a bit of blue on the inner margin by the abdomen, and some blue on the forewing surrounding the sex-brand. But primarily a more green alexandrae compared to the mostly blue form, which I believe to be more rare. In "Outstanding Birdwing Butterflies" by Deslisle and Sclavo, they show photos of various alexandrae from the mostly green to mostly blue forms. They have named the blue form as "kampsi". There is also a form "atavis" with yellow spots on the hindwings. The one in the video appears to be the bluish form.