The Other Side of Blue
You're looking at one of the most famous blue butterflies in the world. You just can't see the blue. The blue morpho keeps its electric color on the top of its wings, and when it lands and folds them shut, you get this side instead: warm browns and a row of eyespots that stare right back at you. Those eyes are a bluff, there to startle hungry birds and lizards or pull an attack away from its body.
And that famous blue? It isn't real pigment. It's light, bent by scales too small to see. Their tiny layered ridges reflect only blue light back to your eye and cancel out the rest, so the color shimmers and shifts as the wings move.
This moment of noticing was one where I fell back from the crowd, lost in a moment too cool to walk away from. As I recognized what I captured, I ran to my friends excitedly showing them to see what was on my camera screen. Pure joy drips out of me in times like these. This experience was while visiting the butterfly sanctuary at Shipstern Nature Reserve here in Northern Belize. I truly believe that nature poses for me, and this is the perfect example. As “Blue” landed on a window long enough for me to find the perfect reflection and backdrop. A moment in time burned into my mind with loving energy.
What we protect begins with what we notice. My noticing leads to The Wild Land Project.
About This Image
Common name: Blue morpho
Scientific name: Morpho helenor peleides (also written Morpho peleides)
Location: Butterfly sanctuary, Shipstern Nature Reserve, northern Belize
Collection: Things with Wings
