From the common to the rare, we need your help in recording butterflies in Vermont. Everyone knows what a butterfly looks like and many of you are armed with a camera. Help us help the butterflies! Whether you help with full surveys or just find a few butterflies while doing other outdoor activities, It's easy to report your sightings to the Vermont Butterfly Atlas at e-Butterfly.

Joining the Vermont Butterfly Atlas is easy and you don't have to be an expert. Just follow these four steps! 

  1. Join eButterfly and be comfortable using the website or the mobile app.

      • This easy-to-use mobile app allows people to upload their butterfly sightings to an online community. Just create a checklist of all the species you see while observing. Add counts, photos, comments, and even use eButterfly computer vision to help you with identifications of butterflies you photographed. Want to enjoy nature without your mobile ? You can always take out a trusty notebook to record your checklist on paper and enter them later via the eButterfly website. 

  2. Decide what kind of survey you are going to do. 

      • Adopt a priority block – Visit VCE’s Block Mapper to see where we need surveys and commit to surveying a priority block near you. Try to find 40 species. Survey throughout the active season (April – September), across different habitats and don’t worry! – you’ve got until end of 2027 to find them all! 
      • Blockbusting roadtrip – Can’t commit to an entire block? Try out blockbusting! Find an unadopted block, or even an adopted block that could use some help, and make a one-time visit to survey. Explore a new hiking trail, a new conservation area, or add a survey stop to your regularly planned outdoor adventure.
      • See a butterfly and share it (incidental observations) – too busy for a survey but still want to contribute? Snap a picture and upload to either eButterfly (accepts both photo records and sight records) or the Vermont Atlas of Life project on iNaturalist (photo records only) when you see a butterfly – anytime, anywhere like in your garden, on a walk, or on your way to the store.

  3. Find a place to butterfly 

      1. Once you’ve decided what kind of butterflying fits your schedule, check out Google Maps and AllTrails for local public access lands including town and state land, hiking trails, nature preserves, old cemeteries or even make a new friend and ask a local farm if you can survey on their property.

  4. Grab your gear and go!

Learn more with our Manual for Participants

If this sounds like a project that you’d like to help, check out a more in depth Participant’s Manual to learn the ins and outs of volunteering to survey butterflies.