Website update : 28th March 2026

Cairns trip, February 2026

I don’t normally go to Cairns in the wet season, but I thought I’d give it a go this year as some butterflies I really wanted to see aren’t on the wing in the drier parts of the year.  I ended up booking my longest butterflying trip to date, spending 13 days in Cairns as I wanted to have plenty of time even if some days were rained out.

In the event it mostly rained at night, though during the daytime it was extremely humid and often heavily overcast, the latter not being good for butterflying. I was hampered further when my much loved Canon EOS 90D died; this was particularly annoying because it had been working fine that morning, but then I laboriously went on a long trek through the rainforest up a hill, only to find at the top that my camera wouldn’t work. For the rest of the trip I had to use a backup camera – one that I don’t like much.

The very first butterfly I photographed was a species I hadn’t seen before, the White-margined Grass-dart (Ocybadistes hypomeloma). I was only able to get a couple of shots and one of those was horribly out of focus, but it was an encouraging start.  Later on, using the backup camera, I also got a couple of shots of Hesperilla ornata monotherm, the north Queensland subspecies of the Spotted Sedge-skipper. I’d previously only seen one of these, back in September 2009, and I hadn’t been able to get any shots of that one. On this trip I had 4 sightings, the last of which sat still long enough for me to photograph it.

A real highlight was seeing my first ever adult Silky Jewel (Hypochrysops digglesii) in nature. I had found larvae before but the only adult I’d seen was a male that hatched from a pupa a friend had sent to me. But on this trip, while my mate Ross and I had been looking for Satin Azures (Ogyris amaryllis) I spotted a digglesii flying rapidly around one of the mistletoes. A little while earlier I’d said to Ross that I’d love to get a digglesii sitting on one of these mistletoes; fortunately this one settled right in front of me, and briefly sat so I could get a clear shot. Her hind wing was damaged, which turned out to be a plus because the lovely blue on her upperside showed through the missing chunk of her wing. 

Another butterfly  I’d really hoped to get on this trip was the Sword-brand Grass-skipper (Toxidia xiphiphora), in fact this was one of the main reasons why I chose to make this trip in February. I’d previously only seen one xiphiphora, I’d taken two extremely poor photos of a female back in March 2017, but I particularly wanted to get shots of a male because of that distinctive brand on their forewings. And besides, I really do love skippers…

About an hour after I photographed the digglesii Ross and I were on a hilltop near Chillagoe, looking for xiphiphora and Northern Ant-blues (Hypochrysops decima).  Several xiphiphora showed up; one was a fantastic specimen whilst the others ranged from pretty good through to fairly wretched; I was able to get plenty of photos though I couldn’t quite get the ideal shot, which would have been one sitting with his wings completely open. I did see them settle like that once or twice, but never in a position where I could get the shot.

I wasn’t so lucky with decima, a couple of them showed up for a short while, but they stayed up at the top of the tallest tree and never settled, at least not within our sight. For some reason there were lots of Dark Ciliate-blues (Anthene seltuttus) at this site. I think I saw more that day than I’ve seen on all my trips to Cairns put together; most of them were lovely specimens too. There was also a Black-spotted Flash / Common Tit (Hypolycaena phorbas) that fell in love with Ross; well it was Valentine’s Day. It followed him around for some time, frequently settling on him before perching for a long time on his hat.

Around Cairns itself I saw more Swallowtails than I normally see in the drier months, but the butterfly that most surprised me was the White-margined Crow (Euploea darchia niveata). I’d only photographed this subspecies on one occasion, in June 2022; other than that I’d very occasionally seen one if I was very lucky. But on this trip I saw them just about every day I spent around Cairns, including in places I’d never seen them before such as the Smithfield Conservation Park. It’s a beautiful butterfly and I loved seeing so many of them around.

Towards the end of my trip the weather deteriorated and I saw fewer butterflies; on the last day it was so gloomy I didn’t even go out at all. It wasn’t a hugely successful trip but I did get photos of several of my targets, some nice shots of many other species, and some very nice surprises.