14th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
A Female Tiger Swallowtail Drinking Nectar in Preparation for Laying Eggs

We bought our house a year ago. There was a bush in the backyard that we were considering taking out, but I was hesitant to do so until I'd seen it in bloom. It finally bloomed at the end of July and literally hundreds of tiger swallowtails converged onto the bush. They seemed to love the white flowers and spent all day flitting from one flower to the next. I think this one bush may have single-handedly supported the entire local population of tiger swallowtails! Needless to say, we are never going to remove that bush and I'm very thankful that we waited to see what it would become.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 08.2016
Date Uploaded: 11.2016
Photo Location: Hillsborough, North Carolina, United States of America
Camera: Canon EOS REBEL SL1
Copyright: © Heather Stafford