BIMBY – The Great B.C. Butterfly Search

About the Butterflies in My Backyard (BIMBY) project

More than 160 volunteers joined the Butterflies in My Backyard (BIMBY) project in 2021. The B.C.-based citizen science campaign is hosted by the David Suzuki Foundation on the iNaturalist platform. BIMBY volunteers worked alongside UBC zoologist Michelle Tseng and UBC Botanical Garden associate director Tara Moreau to observe and collect data on B.C. butterflies. Their goal was to help find endangered and prevalent butterflies and better understand their relationship with native plants.

Last year, BIMBY participants made 615 observations, documenting 47 butterfly species in Metro Vancouver.

In 2022, all people in British Columbia are invited to join the BIMBY project’s Great B.C. Butterfly Search. The goal is to recruit volunteers throughout the province to identify butterflies in their communities.

According to E-Fauna B.C., a biodiversity website run by the UBC geography department, there are at least 184 local butterfly species in the province, the most diverse in the country. Tseng says the latest data also show 10 out of 19 endangered insects in B.C. are butterflies.

Like other wild pollinators, butterflies in B.C. face challenges including pesticide harm, climate change and habitat loss. But the biggest challenge is the lack of data. The BIMBY team, which comprises DSF staff, volunteer consultants and UBC scientists, hopes the data collected in 2022 will present a clearer picture of B.C. butterfly health, causes of their challenges and implications for biodiversity.

According to Moreau, apart from using citizen science to create a baseline and document butterfly abundance and diversity in B.C., it is important “to see how this work can help to halt the loss of biodiversity and prevent extinction of species in B.C. These are the big global biodiversity goals for the next decade and it would be great to showcase how we can connect baselining butterflies to halting their extinction.”

What do BIMBY volunteers do after being selected?

BIMBY volunteers will be asked to join the Butterflies in My Backyard (BIMBY) project on iNaturalist.

BIMBY webinar training is on April 9, 2022.

Morning training will be about taking and submitting photos of butterflies and plants they rest on to BIMBY on iNaturalist.

Volunteers will also meet the BIMBY’s team of UBC scientists and volunteer consultants to learn about the state of B.C. butterflies and what BIMBY can help achieve with the data collected in 2022.

• From May to September, volunteers will attend monthly meetings, on Zoom or in person.
• A final report will be shared with BIMBY citizen science volunteers between October and November in a Zoom webinar.
• Optional participation: You will be invited to sign up to be BIMBY Walkers (volunteers who document butterflies along specific walking routes from May to September).
• School-based BIMBY volunteers will be invited to join the BIMBY School Bioblitz during the first week of June.