• Toddlers
  • Children
  • Teenagers
  • Young at Heart
  • In Atlanta
  • Outside of Atlanta
Things To Do In Atlanta With Kids
Day Butterfly Center
Children, Outside of Atlanta, Teenagers, Toddlers, Young at Heart 0

Experience the magic of the Day Butterfly Center

By Josiah Keller · On July 1, 2014

The Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center resides in the Callaway Gardens, 80-100 minutes southwest of Atlanta’s center. True, it’s quite a drive from Atlanta—especially if you have young children—but it can really be worth it, or a great place to stop by if you’re coming from that direction. In addition, there are a couple other things for you to do in the area, like visiting the Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park, or Wild Animal Safari.

The Butterfly Center has been in operation since 1988, and was named in honor of Christian philanthropist and founder of Days Inn, Cecil B. Day. More than a thousand butterflies are housed within the center, coming from fifty species. The center is filled with a variety of tropical plants to provide the butterflies with a wonderful living environment, and is in fact one of the largest tropical butterfly conservatories in all of North America.

A visit at any time of year is special, but September tops them all, with Blue Morpho Month. The Blue Morpho is one of the largest butterflies, with a wingspan of five to eight inches, and an incredibly beautiful iridescent blue wing. The Blue Morphos come out of the chrysalises during September, and fill the conservatory with their incredible, beautiful, active color. The wings are blue on the top, and a dull brown on bottom, giving them the impression of appearing and disappearing while flying (watch these videos from ‘Smarter Every Day’ for a fascinating look at the science of butterfly wings: part 1, part 2). The butterflies’ large size and vivid colors make it an excellent candidate for photographs, but as one of the more active of the butterfly species, they can be harder to capture an image of. In the morning and afternoon—the bookends of the day—the Blue Morphos rest more, giving you a better shot at getting a good shot.

If your children are fascinated by either butterflies or plants, they may very well be captivated by making a butterfly garden once you go back home. In June & July, at 11 am each Thursday, you can join the Gardening For Butterflies presentation, and learn about the plants that butterflies like and need, and what you can do to attract them. Afterward you can pick up seeds for these plants in the gift shop.

Admission is for the entirety of the Callaway Gardens, and costs $18 for 13 and up, and $9 for 6–12. The gardens are open 9 am–6 pm. More info here.

 

Image taken from callawaygardens.com

ButterfliesLearningNatureWildlife
Share Tweet

Josiah Keller

Josiah works primarily in web development and writing, and once wrote a 50,000 word (unpublished) novel in a month. He also loves to travel, and explore different cultures and locations.

You Might Also Like

  • Fox Theatre Children

    Tour the Historic Fox Theatre and Enjoy A Show

  • Children's Museum Atlanta Children

    Go to the Children’s Museum of Atlanta

No Comments

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Things to do in Atlanta with kids

  • Fox Theatre

    Tour the Historic Fox Theatre and Enjoy A Show

    August 23, 2014
  • Children's Museum Atlanta

    Go to the Children’s Museum of Atlanta

    July 30, 2014
  • Day Butterfly Center

    Experience the magic of the Day Butterfly Center

    July 1, 2014
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Things To Do in Atlanta With Kids

About This Web Site

Welcome! This site is about travel ideas for you and your kids while in Atlanta. We're sharing our favorite places to see, things to do, and general fun things. The list on the homepage is a consolidated list of the coolest things in Atlanta, Georgia. Each one links to the best online site about that topic (usually an official site by that venue). Enjoy!

Pages

  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Things To Do in Atlanta With Kids

Categories

  • Children
  • In Atlanta
  • Outside of Atlanta
  • Teenagers
  • Toddlers
  • Young at Heart

© 2014 Things To Do In Atlanta With Kids. All rights reserved.