Green Hairstreaks

The Green Hairstreak is one of my favourite British Butterflies as, although tiny, it is so bright and exotic looking. I find all our Hairstreaks quite enigmatic as they can take a bit of tracking down in their own specific environments. The Green Hairstreak is the first to appear each year in April and May, followed by the Black Hairstreak for a brief couple of weeks in June/July, then the White-letter Hairstreak and Purple Hairstreak in July and August with the late summer Brown Hairstreak emerging in August and September. The Green Hairstreak is perhaps the hardiest and could almost be described as a generalist as it occurs in a wide variety of habitats though it does require open grassland or moorland which is extensively grazed. I am used to seeing Yorkshire Green Hairstreaks low down on Bilberry, but I found this small population on heathland in Norfolk over Easter flitting between Gorse, Silver Birch and even alighting on Oak. As they can be found on a variety of soils the Green Hairstreak is still quite widespread, but as you can see from their colour they can be hard to spot amongst the foliage - until they move of course!

The White-letter Hairstreak is completely dependent on Elm, the Purple Hairstreak on Oak usually near Ash and the Black and Brown Hairstreaks require abundant Blackthorn. I look forward to tracking down these specialists later in the year.