The admiral

The large, colourful, black, white and red admiral is both one of Denmark’s largest butterflies and one of the most well-known, even though it only lives here for half of the year. The admiral is a true migratory butterfly. It arrives with migrating birds from the south at the end of May, and immediately starts to mate and lay eggs. Already a month later, the first members of the new generation take flight and spend the summer months drinking nectar, feeding on the juice of fermenting fruits and many other things that are otherwise not very appetising, and absolutely not something you would associate with the poetic butterfly.

At the end of summer, the admiral winds up its activities in Denmark and flies south once again. If you find a good spot, for example, on the edge of Bøtø forest facing the beach, on a good day between August and October, you might see hundreds, or even thousands of admiral butterflies making their way south.