BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gavia_immer" data-source="post: 1503042" data-attributes="member: 65934">Chapter 1: The Common Blue.Of course, the first Blue Butterfly I am presenting here is the very common and widespread Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus). This is the big reference as the first step when one finds a Blue in the wild is to know if it is a Common or something else.I start presenting the male.The main ID tips are in the underside:  additional cell spot on the forewing and broad white fringes. There are more Blue species with a cell spot but don't have those bold white fringes (apart from 2 species with very limited range in Europe).The upperside is blue with a violet shade. When you are used to it, you see the difference with the pure blue, turquoise blue, pale blue of other species. You can see all these ID tips in the first pic. Luckyly the specimen of the first pic had a broken part in the underwing that allows you to see the violet hue of the upperwing. Pity I don't have a shot of the bug with the wings open. If anybody can contribute to that, it would be much appreciated.The other two pics illustrate that no matter how big or small the spots are, how worn the butterfly is, it is the possition of the spots what tells you it is a Common Blue.</blockquote>