The big butterfly count 2026

February 2026

If you enjoy the New Zealand Garden Bird Survey, you will enjoy the Big Butterfly Count. Even better, it is held in mid-summer, not mid-winter, so you don't have to wrap up warm to participate. Simply slip, slop, slap and get out in the garden for quarter of an hour to watch nature.

This month the Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust (MBNZT) is once again running their Big Butterfly Count and you can find out all the information here:

https://www.nzbutterflies.org.nz/project/big-butterfly-count/

I am a huge citizen science fan, see my love affair with iNaturalist and bioblitzes, so this is right up my street. Last year I did butterfly counts in my garden and at Auckland Domain Wintergardens. It will be interesting to see the changes a year on. I have a heap more butterflies in my garden with the expanded flower beds, but on my lunchtime visits to the Wintergardens, which is a complex of Victorian glasshouses with a traditional herbaceous border alongside it, I haven't seen any butterflies this year.

You can undertake as many surveys as you like, but you only survey each location once. I really think there are more butterflies around in Auckland this summer, but the proof is through the science so I look forward to hearing how it went for everyone. You don't have to know your butterflies to contribute as the surveys allow for options such as "unknown blue". The more data the MBNZT have, the more they can advocate for these indicator species, so if you too love butterflies, please join in.