We recently received a request for more information about the Purple Milkweed Butterfly, which was the subject of a video covering their annual mass migration in Taiwan. As the winter monsoon moves down from the Northeast, thousands of Purple Milkweed Butterflies make a mass migration to south Taiwan, where they shelter in the warm valleys at the foot of Dawu Mountain. Spectators have described the spectacle as like watching a purple river coming around the mountain. Scattered with white dots over glistening blue and purple wings, the irridescent colour continually changes hue in the sunlight.
Milkweed butterflies are so-called because their larvae feed on milkweed plants, which cause the butterflies to be distasteful and toxic, an effective deterrent against predators. They are also known as Crow butterflies and the migrating purple crow butterflies are classified as members of the Euploea genus (Euploeini).
Kelly Her has written a comprehensive article about efforts to safeguard the seasonal migration and she can be contacted at mail.gio.gov.tw (usual mail address format, kelly@mail.gio.etc.etc). There is also a Purple Butterfly Valley Conservation Society in Maolin, Taiwan.
A female godwit was recently tracked using satellite tags and found to fly 7,145 miles (11,500 kilometers) nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand. Biologists say it is the longest nonstop bird migration ever to have been recorded. more
Each September, around 70,000 godwits make the migration from their Alaska breeding grounds to New Zealand, then they fly back the following March.
Our listings contain many interesting Birding Holidays in our database.
Following my last post, here is a nice video supplied by Bill Toone about his 2003 trip to Mexico visiting Monarch Butterflies. You might also want to check out the video from hooligantv.com which is a good documentary about the Monarch Butterflies hibernation reserve.
Two species of butterfly have been identified which take part in mass migration. Tens of thousands of Monarch butterflies travel about 5,000km from Canada and the US to over-winter in Mexico. From November to March, the hibernation point at Mariposa Monarca (Special Biosphere Reserve) encourages visitors to follow trails through the forests where the butterfly spends the winter months. In Taiwan, when the winter monsoon comes down from the Northeast, tens of thousands of Purple Milkweed Butterflies make a migration south to take shelter in the warm valleys at the foot of Dawu Mountain. Come the spring, they return to their breeding ground in the north which involves passing over some 600m of busy freeway and this year, the Taiwanese authorities are to close one lane of a major highway to protect them. The authorities are also installing special netting and ultra violet lights, in an effort to raise the flight path of the butterflies, and thereby avoid them being sucked into the down-draught created by the cars.
In Taiwan, when the winter monsoon comes down from the Northeast, tens of thousands of 
