{"id":70753,"date":"2020-06-10T05:36:38","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T11:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=70753"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:27:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T12:27:22","slug":"painted-lady-butterfly-and-rocky-mountain-bee-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/06\/10\/painted-lady-butterfly-and-rocky-mountain-bee-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Painted Lady Butterfly And Rocky Mountain Bee Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-172204 size-full\" title=\"Painted Lady butterfly on Rocky Mountain Bee Plant, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painted-lady-on-rocky-mountain-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-6402.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painted-lady-on-rocky-mountain-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-6402.jpg\" alt=\"Painted Lady butterfly on Rocky Mountain Bee Plant, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painted-lady-on-rocky-mountain-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-6402-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painted-lady-on-rocky-mountain-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-6402-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painted-lady-on-rocky-mountain-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-6402-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painted-lady-on-rocky-mountain-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-6402-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painted-lady-on-rocky-mountain-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-6402-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painted-lady-on-rocky-mountain-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-6402.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Painted Lady butterfly on Rocky Mountain Bee Plant &#8211; Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/4000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been seeing other things with wings lately while out looking for birds to photograph and while birds are my main passion I try to pay attention to everything I see and photograph them when I can.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d forgotten about this Painted Lady butterfly I photographed in August of 2017 that I found while photographing hummingbirds on <a href=\"https:\/\/stateparks.utah.gov\/parks\/antelope-island\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Antelope Island State Park<\/span><\/a>. Although I was focused primarily on the birds I felt I had to take photos of the butterflies I saw nectaring on the pink wildflowers.<\/p>\n<p>Rocky Mountain Bee Plants are native wildflowers that attract hummingbirds, bees, flies, wasps, ants, moths, and butterflies.<\/p>\n<p>In the Western hemisphere Painted Lady butterflies can be found throughout much of the continental U.S., southern parts of Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and in some locations in northern South America in open or disturbed areas. They are also known as Thistle Butterflies because of the caterpillars&#8217; food preference and also as the Cosmopolitan because it is the most widely distributed butterfly in the world.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve only seen one Painted Lady butterfly so far this year but to be fair I haven&#8217;t been getting out as much as I typically do this spring because of the coronavirus and crazy spring weather. I am keeping an eye out for them though.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good. Stay safe.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/flower-and-tree-images\/\">here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my flower, shrub and tree photos. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/insects-and-spiders\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see my insect and spider galleries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;d forgotten about this Painted Lady butterfly I photographed in August of 2017 that I found while photographing hummingbirds on Antelope Island State Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172204,"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":[511,1022,7120,26,5347],"tags":[6041,6042,12222,10035,6044,7135,7125,5064,2627,4444,10034,7126,4307],"class_list":["post-70753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-davis-county-utah","category-painted-lady-butterflies","category-utah","category-wildflowers","tag-butterflies","tag-butterfly","tag-cleomella-serrulata","tag-cosmopolitan","tag-nectaring","tag-painted-lady","tag-painted-lady-butterfly","tag-pink-wildflowers","tag-pollinating","tag-rocky-mountain-bee-plant","tag-thistle-butterflies","tag-vanessa-cardui","tag-wildflowers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/painted-lady-on-rocky-mountain-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-6402.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-ipb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53362,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/08\/05\/monarch-butterflies-and-rocky-mountain-bee-plants-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":70753,"position":0},"title":"Monarch Butterflies and Rocky Mountain Bee Plants in Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year I found plenty of Monarch Butterflies on the Rocky Mountain Bee Plants on Antelope Island and they were a delight to photograph as they fluttered around going from flower to flower sipping nectar from the delicate blossoms.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Monarch Butterfly nectaring from a Rocky Mountain Bee Plant, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/monarch-butterfly-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-4732.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/monarch-butterfly-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-4732.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/monarch-butterfly-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-4732.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/monarch-butterfly-bee-plant-mia-mcpherson-4732.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48219,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/08\/23\/rocky-mountain-bee-plant-monarch-butterfly-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":70753,"position":1},"title":"Rocky Mountain Bee Plant &#038; Monarch Butterfly In Flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Photographing birds while they are flying can be challenging and photographing Monarch Butterflies in flight can be just as challenging to do too.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Monarch Butterfly landing on a Rocky Mountain Bee Plant, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/monarch-butterfly-flight-mia-mcpherson-5916.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/monarch-butterfly-flight-mia-mcpherson-5916.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/monarch-butterfly-flight-mia-mcpherson-5916.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/monarch-butterfly-flight-mia-mcpherson-5916.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":57706,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/05\/09\/painted-lady-and-mourning-cloak-butterflies-on-fragrant-sumac\/","url_meta":{"origin":70753,"position":2},"title":"Painted Lady And Mourning Cloak Butterflies On Fragrant Sumac","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This Mourning Cloak butterfly I photographed five days ago not far from where I photographed the Painted Lady was also nectaring on Fragrant Sumac and it too looked a bit worn because they are a migratory butterfly species as well.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Box Elder County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Box Elder County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/box-elder-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mourning Cloak butterfly on Fragrant Sumac, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mourning-cloak-butterfly-fragrant-sumac-mia-mcpherson-2436.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mourning-cloak-butterfly-fragrant-sumac-mia-mcpherson-2436.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mourning-cloak-butterfly-fragrant-sumac-mia-mcpherson-2436.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mourning-cloak-butterfly-fragrant-sumac-mia-mcpherson-2436.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":141156,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/03\/04\/checkered-white-butterfly-on-a-black-eyed-susan-in-oklahoma\/","url_meta":{"origin":70753,"position":3},"title":"Checkered White Butterfly On A Black-eyed Susan In Oklahoma","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It isn\u2019t really spring yet, but I\u2019ve already seen a bee, flies, moths, and butterflies. They reminded me of this Checkered White butterfly I photographed last year.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Black-eyed Susans&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Black-eyed Susans","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/trees-shrubs-and-flowers\/wildflowers\/black-eyed-susans\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Checkered White butterfly on a Black-eyed Susan, Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge, Johnston County, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/black-eyed-susan-checkered-white-butterfly-mia-mcpherson-3264.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/black-eyed-susan-checkered-white-butterfly-mia-mcpherson-3264.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/black-eyed-susan-checkered-white-butterfly-mia-mcpherson-3264.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/black-eyed-susan-checkered-white-butterfly-mia-mcpherson-3264.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48156,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/08\/18\/black-chinned-rufous-hummingbirds-white-lined-sphinx-moths-and-monarch-butterflies\/","url_meta":{"origin":70753,"position":4},"title":"Black-chinned &#038; Rufous Hummingbirds, White-lined Sphinx Moths and Monarch Butterflies","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Rocky Mountain Bee Plants are blooming all over the Salt Lake Valley right now and those beautiful, spider-like flowers are attracting hummingbirds, moths, butterflies, bees and a host of insects.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-chinned Hummingbird on Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-chinned-hummingbird-flight-mia-mcpherson-4283.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-chinned-hummingbird-flight-mia-mcpherson-4283.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-chinned-hummingbird-flight-mia-mcpherson-4283.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-chinned-hummingbird-flight-mia-mcpherson-4283.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":92222,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/07\/14\/two-tailed-swallowtail-and-showy-milkweed\/","url_meta":{"origin":70753,"position":5},"title":"Two-tailed Swallowtail And Showy Milkweed","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"When I returned home and could view my images on a large screen I was able to identify this swallowtail butterfly as a male Two-tailed Swallowtail.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Morgan County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Morgan County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/morgan-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Two-tailed Swallowtail on Showy Milkweed, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Two-tailed-Swallowtail-on-showy-milkweed-mia-mcpherson-9160.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Two-tailed-Swallowtail-on-showy-milkweed-mia-mcpherson-9160.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Two-tailed-Swallowtail-on-showy-milkweed-mia-mcpherson-9160.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Two-tailed-Swallowtail-on-showy-milkweed-mia-mcpherson-9160.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}