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Butterfly watching

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Butterfly watching (also called butterflying) is a hobby concerned with the observation and study of butterflies. Lepidopterists would be a more formal or scientific description of persons engaged in this hobby. It is growing in popularity, and there are clubs, handbooks, checklists, and even festivals devoted to the activity, just as there are for birding. The Fourth of July and Canada Day butterfly count, an annual census of species by butterfly watchers throughout North America, is an example of citizen science.

The United Kingdom probably has more butterfly watchers per head of population than any other country since membership of the organisations involved is far higher.^{[citation needed]} The millennium atlas survey in the UK has collected more records of butterflies than any other survey and the data have proved useful for the development of research.^{[citation needed]}