{"id":53598,"date":"2018-08-15T05:30:39","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T11:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=53598"},"modified":"2024-09-03T10:06:21","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T15:06:21","slug":"colorado-hairstreak-butterfly-photos-from-the-wasatch-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/08\/15\/colorado-hairstreak-butterfly-photos-from-the-wasatch-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Hairstreak Butterfly Photos From The Wasatch Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m always delighted to take a photographic “lifer” whether that is a bird,\u00a0wildflower, mammal or insect that I’ve never photographed or as was the case yesterday, a butterfly I’d never taken images of before. I was photographing birds when I spotted a hairstreak butterfly land right in front of me and took some images of it, I didn’t know at the time it was a Colorado Hairstreak butterfly, I found that out later after I got home.<\/p>\n

\"RestingResting Colorado Hairstreak Butterfly – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn’t know anything about this species of butterfly yesterday when I photographed it but this is some of the information I found out by doing research on the web. Colorado Hairstreak butterflies (Hypaurotis crysalus<\/em>) are montane butterflies that depend on Gambel Oaks both as a roost for the adults and as a food source for the caterpillars. Adult Colorado Hairstreak butterflies feed on tree sap and apparently honeydew secreted by insects such as aphids rather than nectaring on flowers.<\/p>\n

\"Range

By derivative work: Megan McCarty (talk)North_America_second_level_political_division_2.svg: Alex Covarrubias [CC BY-SA 2.5 (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>Colorado Hairstreak butterflies are found in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and small areas of Nevada, Wyoming and Durango, Mexico. They are usually found at elevations higher than 6500 feet, the one I photographed was at a slightly lower elevation and there weren’t any Gambel Oaks immediately nearby though I know for a fact that there are oaks on the canyon slopes in the vicinity.<\/p>\n

Colorado Hairstreak butterflies are the official state insect of Colorado.<\/p>\n

\"ColoradoColorado Hairstreak Butterfly with wings partially open – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The “tail” that hairstreaks often have at the bottom of the lower wing is hidden in my photos, oh how I wish it weren’t!<\/p>\n

I’m not sure of the identity of the shrub the Colorado Hairstreak landed on but I’m very glad that it landed to rest in front of me even though it was only for a few seconds. I’ve probably seen this species before but I had never taken photos of them until yesterday morning.<\/p>\n

Life is good, “lifers” are great.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see my insect and spider galleries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was photographing birds when I spotted a hairstreak butterfly land right in front of me and took some images of it, I didn’t know at the time it was a Colorado Hairstreak butterfly, I found that out later after I got home. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6727,4594,26,773],"tags":[6041,6042,6729,6731,6728,531,6733,6732,4156,5498],"class_list":["post-53598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colorado-hairstreak-butterflies","category-morgan-county","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-butterflies","tag-butterfly","tag-colorado-hairstreak-butterfly","tag-gambel-oak","tag-hypaurotis-crysalus","tag-lifer","tag-open","tag-quercus-gambelii","tag-resting","tag-wings"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/colorado-hairstreak-mia-mcpherson-4864.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dWu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":142553,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/04\/03\/gray-hairstreak-butterfly-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":53598,"position":0},"title":"Gray Hairstreak Butterfly Photos – For The Love Of Butterflies","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Butterflies are rapidly declining in North America, so I\u2019m photographing and sharing them often. 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Butterfly Resting On Black Twinberry Honeysuckle","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm confident in my North American bird ID abilities but when it comes to Fritillary butterfly species ID in the Wasatch Mountains I feel stymied a lot of the time.","rel":"","context":"In "Great Spangled Fritillary Butterflies"","block_context":{"text":"Great Spangled Fritillary Butterflies","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/great-spangled-fritillary-butterflies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly butterfly resting on Black Twinberry Honeysuckle, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, 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