are some of the butterflies in the brush-foot family (Nymphalidae). Simply replace the fruit when it has dried out or become too moldy. If they are in the area and hungry, the butterflies will be able to find the feeder by scent.

If you can, put the feeder someplace where you can easily see it from your house or office so you can keep track of the butterflies. The butterflies will like it best if it’s overripe, so this is a great way to use rotten fruit or rinds from fruit you’ve eaten.īutterflies like the sun and don’t like the wind, so try to place your feeder in that type of location. We’ve used melon (watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew), banana, apple, orange, and mango. They’re in it for the sugar, not the aesthetics. That’s it! Obviously, you can spruce up this basic design to make something that’s prettier for people, but as I said earlier - the butterflies won’t care. Bring the four strings together and form a single connection point that you can hang from a shepherd’s crook or similar structure. To hang the feeder, use some screw eyes in each corner of the frame and attach wire or string to the screw eyes. Staple or tack window screening to the bottom of the frame. The hanging feeder is probably the most flexible design: make a frame out of 1”x1” wood I suggest keeping it to approximately 1 ft square to keep the weight down.

You can go simple and just use a plate or pie tin, or you can get fancier and make a hanging feeder with a bottom that drains. Basically, all you need is something to hold the fruit. These are some of the species that can be attracted using a butterfly feeder. The picture above shows 3 mourning cloaks, a gray comma, and an eastern comma getting sap from a tree stump in spring. Other butterflies feed on sap or rotten fruit. For these butterflies, simply providing the right nectar plants, including natives such as asters, milkweeds, coneflowers, and blue mist flower, and exotics such as butterfly bush, zinnias, and marigolds, will provide them with the food they need.

Butterfly feeder food