Even though butterflies might look really fragile they are actually stronger than you think! While many butterflies migrate, the Monarch butterfly goes farthest of them all. These butterflies cannot survive a long cold winter, and so they must take to the skies. Monarchs that live west of the Rocky Mountains fly to the California coast, but Monarchs that live east of the Rocky Mountains must fly farther south to Mexico. That's a long way!

The trip of the Monarch butterfly is a long one. Some of them travel as much as three thousand (3,000) miles, approximately the distance from the east coast to the west coast of the United States. Some scientists believe that they float on air currents in order to travel so far. They fly in big groups often spending the winter months in the exact same tree as the year before!

To learn more about Monarch Butterfly migration try these exciting web sites!

Monarch Migration: Site devoted to monarch migration, focusing on how these small winged creatures can manage to travel so far.

Monarchs and Migration: A great, colorful site offering information about the path the monarch takes on its migration.

To return to the Migration Page

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