2025–2026 Maolin Butterfly Watching Season

Taiwan's 'Purple Butterfly Valley' ranks alongside the Monarch Butterfly Valley of the Americas as a world-class natural treasure. Maolin is one of only two overwintering butterfly valleys in the world: from around October to February each year, purple crow butterflies migrate to the valleys at the foot of Dawu Mountain to escape the winter cold, returning north when spring arrives. Each winter, the butterflies glide on their glider-like purple wings to the warm, sheltered valleys below Dawu Mountain—the sacred mountain of the Rukai and Paiwan peoples in southern Taiwan—forming overwintering colonies that can number in the hundreds of thousands, paired with Mexico's Monarch Butterfly Valley across the Pacific.