The large and brilliantly-colored monarch butterfly is among the most easily recognizable butterfly species that call North America home. Monarch butterflies are found across North America wherever their habitat’s needs are being met. They are broken into two populations separated by the Rocky Mountains, called the eastern and western populations.

Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed. As caterpillars, monarchs feed exclusively on the leaves of milkweed, wildflowers in the genus Asclepias. North America has several dozen native milkweed species with which monarchs coevolved and upon which they rely to complete their life cycle.

The monarch migration is one of the greatest phenomena in the natural world. Monarchs know the correct direction to migrate even though the individuals that migrate have never made the journey before. They follow an internal “compass” that points them in the right direction each spring and fall. A single monarch can travel hundreds or even thousands of miles.