{"id":660285,"date":"2026-06-27T00:51:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T00:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/660285\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T00:51:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T00:51:04","slug":"edinburghs-favourite-butterflies-revealed-the-edinburgh-reporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/660285\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh’s favourite butterflies revealed – The Edinburgh Reporter"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Comma has been revealed as Edinburgh\u2019s favourite butterfly, after a public vote.<\/p>\n

Wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation said the bold and beautiful Comma beat off fierce competition from a colourful cast of species to take the top spot as the capital\u2019s favourite.<\/p>\n

Once described by Sir David Attenborough as \u201cone of our most exquisite butterflies\u201d, the Comma is easily identified by its scalloped orange wings and tiny comma-shaped mark on its underside.<\/p>\n

It beat the Orange-tip \u2013 which was voted top throughout Scotland \u2013 Peacock, Holly Blue and Small Tortoiseshell in a top five described as a \u201crainbow of colour\u201d.<\/p>\n

Edinburgh\u2019s top butterflies emerged following the charity\u2019s first ever vote for Britain\u2019s favourite, in which the Peacock pipped the Orange-tip for top spot.<\/p>\n

Anthony McCluskey, the charity\u2019s Conservation Manager for Scotland, said: \u201cThe response really shows how much people in Scotland care about butterflies.<\/p>\n

\u201cButterflies are a great way to connect with nature. It is delightful to see a butterfly and always cheers people up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Orange-tip, which just pipped the Peacock to first place in Scotland, is a species everyone can recognise in their gardens and local parks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also a really iconic springtime species, which appears in May and June and indicates that summer is on its way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Comma is another very distinctive looking species with its bright orange colour and tiny comma-shaped mark on its underside. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has distinctive scalloped wings, which, when closed, look just like a dead leaf for camouflage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first-ever vote to find Britain\u2019s Favourite Butterfly saw over 20,000 votes cast for 60 different species \u2013 of which just over half are found and consistently breed in Scotland.<\/p>\n

Butterfly Conservation is now calling on people across Scotland to take part in its annual Big Butterfly Count from Friday 17 July to Sunday 9 August to help form an updated picture of how the nation\u2019s most common species are faring.<\/p>\n

Participants will spend 15 minutes in an outdoor space counting the butterflies and day-flying moths they see, and submit sightings to help build an interactive map.<\/p>\n

\"closePhoto by Erik Karits on Pexels.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Comma has been revealed as Edinburgh\u2019s favourite butterfly, after a public vote. Wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[208287,208288,90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-660285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-edinburgh-local-news","tag-edinburgh-news","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}