The indescribable beauty of monarch butterflies filling the sky (video)

[Judi Lynn]

The indescribable beauty of monarch butterflies filling the sky (video)

Melissa Breyer

Melissa Breyer (@MelissaBreyer)
Science / Animals
June 10, 2016



This stunning short film takes us to Mexico during monarch migration where millions of butterflies take to the trees and sky.

By this point most of us know that every year, the monarchs migrate. Millions of them head to Mexico to wait out the cold weather, astonishing us wing-less humans who require airplanes to travel the thousands of miles that monarchs master so non-chalantly.

But have you ever seen what exactly millions of monarchs in Mexico looks like? I've seen photos, they're lovely. But this short film, Wings of Life, offers a glimpse into this phenomenon that is nothing short of magic. Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg employs high-speed, super up-close techniques to showcase in spectacular detail these wonderful little workhorses who are as pretty as they are vital. They fill the sky like paper in a tickertape parade; clouds of confetti, orange and fluttering. They sleep on the branches of oyamel trees, sometimes in numbers so dense that they break the branches. And to see them all together, as shown in the film, is a thing of unforgettable beauty!

(Oh, and it's narrated by Meryl Streep, that never hurts.)

http://www.treehugger.com/animals/indescribable-beauty-monarch-butterflies-filling-sky-video.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29

(Video at link.)

Science:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/122847613

[Eleanors38]

1. Very pretty. Those guys fly over and just to the west of Austin. Their numbers

seem a little better than in years past.

[montana_hazeleyes]

2. I'm glad their numbers seem better.

I was a little kid in the 1950s and butterflies of all types (San Francisco Bay Area) were all around, every day. Then they stared to get rarer and rarer and now I hardly ever see any butterflies at all. Shame.

[niyad]

3. lovely