What is Butterfly World?
Butterfly World is located in Coconut Creek, Florida. It is the first butterfly house in the United States and is the largest in the world. Since its opening in 1988, Butterfly World has housed millions of butterflies. Today the museum is home to thousands of butterflies, bugs, birds, plants, and many more animals.
The museum includes giant aviaries, a butterfly farm, museum/insectarium, flowering gardens, fountains, ponds, and waterfalls. In addition, the museum has a unique research center that offers visitors a chance to see the emergence of a caterpillar to a butterfly.
Only at Butterfly World
The Heliconius hybrid “Piano Key” butterfly can only be found at Butterfly World.
My Journey
My adventure to Butterfly World was on 1/20/2018. I spent 2.5 hours here and went picture crazy!
Transforming from Caterpillar to Butterfly
One of Butterfly World’s main features is the Thomas C. Emmel Butterfly Research Center. The research center houses caterpillars until the formation to butterflies. The center displays different stages of butterflies emerging from all stages of life. The four growth stages of a butterfly’s life cycle:
- The Egg – In mild climates, butterflies usually lay eggs in the autumn. The eggs survive the winter in a sleeping state known as the diapause, which ends as soon as the temperature rises.
- The Larva (Caterpillar) – Bright colors with minimal eyesight, the caterpillar will eat, grow, and shed. When the caterpillar is ready for the next stage of its life, it hangs itself under a leaf, forming a J shape.
- The Pupa (Chrysalis) – The Chrysalis remains still for weeks or even months. During this period, known as pupation, the change from Caterpillar to Butterfly takes place.
- The Butterfly – Emerging with their wings folded up. The butterfly is now an adult and will fly away and begin laying eggs.
How long does a butterfly live?
Some live 3 days, some live 3 months. The average life span is about a week to 10 days.
Enter the Rooms of Beauty
The Butterfly aviary is multiple exhibit rooms with thousands of butterflies flying everywhere. It is a calm and peaceful experience with a variety of plants, ponds, and waterfalls with classical music playing in the background.
I recommend relaxing on the benches in the butterfly aviary.
Watch Your Step
Butterfly Emerging Area
Butterfly World releases up to 3500 pupae each week from their butterfly farm and butterfly farms located in tropical countries around the world. The butterflies at Butterfly World are hand raised and none have been taken from the wild.
Within the protective ceases the Pupa is hard at work, transforming itself from a crawling, leaf chewing critter, into a flying, nectar-sipping beauty.
Bird Aviaries
Butterfly World has 2 separate bird exhibits. The bird’s variety is amazing with birds from all over the world. Some birds are caged and some roam free and could land on you. Some of the birds in the aviary:
Black & White Seedeater – Colombia Venezuela
Black-faced Dacnis – South America
Blue Black Grassquit – Brazil
Budgies – Australia
Canary – Canary Islands
Chinese Painted Quail – Southeast Asia
Japanese White Eyes – Japan
Lady Gouldian Finches – Australia
Orange Breasted Waxbill – Africa – South of the Sahara
Red-Billed Fire Finch – Africa
Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu – Africa
Shafttail Finches – Australia
Society Finch – North America
Spice Finch – India
Violaceous Euphonias – Western South America
White Rumped Silverbill – Africa and Asia
Yellow & Red-Legged Honeycreeper – S. Mexico – Bolivia
Zanzibar Bishop Weaver – Africa
Special Lorikeet Encounter
For a few bucks, you can feed the Lorikeet. They have their own exhibit. Incredibly beautiful and friendly bird!
Plants Gardens and a Bridge
Throughout Butterfly World you will find countless varieties of plants. From the Rose, Secret Vine Mize, and Grace gardens to the plant store itself in the museum, will find plants from all over the world.
Passiflora also is known as Passionflowers gives a nice touch to the exhibits.
The Tinalandia Bridge crosses the Butterfly World Lake to Macaw landing. This is a great feature of the exhibit.
Butterfly Museum and the Bug Zoo Room
The bug room is packed with scary critters. Some of the insects housed here are Tarantulas, Scorpions, Millipedes, Cockroaches, and other more. Enter if you dare!
The Butterfly Museum is great. Here you will see all the different types of butterflies throughout the world. It seems they have every type in the world in this room. Very interesting.
Conclusion
If you are around Coconut Creek, Fort Lauderdale, and even the Miami area I would recommend visiting Butterfly World. Especially if you have kids. This trip can turn into a 3-hour visit if you take your time and take in all the wonders of each exhibit.
I appreciated that this was a self-guided tour. No rush at the museum, I got to enjoy each exhibit and take many pictures and videos. You can repeat the tour for free.
Bring a Camera! Thousands of Butterflies await you.
The price is a little more than the usual museum, however, it is worth the admission cost. I recommend looking on their website for discounts.
Get up-close with animals from all over the world!
