Common Green Birdwing

This species is undoubtedly one of the best known and most impressive on the planet. It is considered one of the largest butterflies in the world: early europeans explorers mistook them for birds (hence the name Ornithoptera, meaning ‘bird wings’). The males are smaller than females and have a very different colouration. It is a poisonous species (the caterpillars feed on poisonous lianas of the genus Aristolochia), as the warning colours of females suggest.