Broward County: Serenity of butterflies
Tradewinds Park houses 20K specimens
Bugs! Bugs everywhere! OK, these are happy, flappy little bugs with beautiful wings flitting about in a serene dance that calms the soul.
They’re the signature draw to Butterfly World, the 30-year-old attraction nestled in the giant Tradewinds Park northwest of Fort Lauderdale in Coconut Creek.
20,000 specimens in all the colors of the spectrum fly about the facility’s main aviary. Usually that’s from among 50 species at one time, but more than 150 species will fly their way in at some point throughout the year.
Most butterflies live at most two weeks at the attraction, although that’s twice as long as in the wild. Certain species, though, including the zebra longwing, can live up to 10 months or longer.
Visitors will see these and other favorites including monarchs, the vibrant blue morphos and stunning green birdwings.
The lush greenery of the aviary is accompanied by music right out of an NPR broadcast of “Echoes” and there are many places to just stand back and take in the colorful ballet before dragging yourself away to the other exhibits at the attraction.
As there are more than just butterflies at Butterfly World.
For those who can handle actual creepy crawly bugs, be sure to visit the Bug Zoo. It has some of the most revealing displays of insects, spiders and other many-legged things that are best kept behind plexiglass. Unlike other bug displays at zoos and the like, usually part of a wall display so you look in on the bugs like they were on television, the ones at the Bug Zoo are freestanding, and in complete light, so visitors can really get a good view of things like giant millipedes, tarantulas and good old American cockroaches.
Or you could stroll through the Jewels of the Sky aviary with its population of tiny, colorful hummingbirds and finches.
For those who want a hands-on experience, for $1, there is lorikeet feeding. There’s nothing like a swarm of lorikeets to brighten your day.
The entire attraction is also rife with colorful blooms, especially passiflora, which serves as the food source for the vast collection of exotic butterflies on site.
And of course, butterflies are the stars of the gift shop, where you can buy your own monarch pupae that will burst forth and maybe take flight about a week later, or if you have a spare $12,500, you could get the hundred butterflies encased in lucite wall hanging, or maybe the $20 earrings.