Product Description

The second in a series of state guides to butterfly-watching, this book will appeal equally to those who simply enjoy these beautiful insects and to the serious observer who keeps a life list. With 334 species of butterflies reported, Arizona ranks second only to Texas, and like Texas, its proximity to Mexico brings the prospect of exotic butterflies not readily seen elsewhere in the United States.

Thirty-five sites are divided among seven regions and each site includes a map and concise driving directions to recommended stops. Travelers will appreciate notes on the nearest food, gas, camping, and lodging. The authors give a species-by-species account of Arizona's butterflies, with recommendations for the best places to find them. They also provide a month-by-month guide to the best places to find butterflies throughout the year. Winter-weary visitors to Arizona will find butterflies even in December and January! A full checklist of the butterflies of Arizona is included as an appendix.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #894237 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 233 pages

About the Author
Hank Brodkin has always been interested in nature, and by the end of World War II he was already an accomplished birder. In the early 90s birding friends introduced Hank and his wife, Priscilla, to the world of butterflies and butterfly watching. They soon traded in their birding binoculars for close-focus pairs, and first Priscilla, then Hank started photographing these creatures. They coauthored, with Bob Stewart, Butterflies of Arizona--A Photographic Guide. They live in Cochise County, Arizona.

Rich Bailowitz earned a bachelor's degree in music from Queens College in New York and then taught high school mathematics for thirty years. He completed his master's degree in entomology from the University of Arizona. He is the author of Butterflies of Southeastern Arizona, and 70 Common Butterflies of the Southwest, as well as numerous popular and peer-reviewed magazine and journal articles over the years.

Customer Reviews

Great guide for new butterfly enthusiasts
Finding Butterflies in Arizona, by Bailowitz and Brodkin, is a welcome addition to available literature on the fauna of Arizona, and one of the first of it's kind that I've seen in this format. It will be particularly helpful for birders who are interested in learning about and finding butterflies. The book is arranged very much like a typical bird-finding guide, a major plus. The major biotic regions of the state are described in the front of the book, and then broken down into fairly concise but clear chapters devoted to each region. Specific species, both common and rare, are discussed in each chapter, including the best season to look for them. The last third of the book describes where to look by species and is arranged taxonomically, starting with the swallowtails and ending with the skippers, and is fairly complete. Towards the back of the book is a chapter describing what to look for by season, and is extremely helpful. A checklist is featured at the end of the book.
There are only a few pages of butterfly photos in the book, mostly common species, and no real natural history info,so anyone without strong knowledge of the local lepidofauna should bring a field guide with them, either a general guide like the Kaufman or Peterson guides, or an Arizona-specific or southwest specific field guide, when using this book in the field.

Essential Travel Companion
Major sections on Finding Butterflies by region, species and month. Excellent photography, clear maps, authoritatively written. The product of years of careful field observation.

It worked for us
We used this book on a recent butterfly adventure in the White Mts. and thanks partly to this guide, we had great sucess. For example, the book states that Riding's Satyr could be found on the south side of Luna Lake in late June. We got out of car on the south side and we had walked only 30 yards and, BINGO!, we had that cryptic creature.