Thousands of colorful wings float around you. The sun catches a riot of yellow, and a dash of blue, before a beautiful splash of orange lands on your arm. You've entered the butterfly flight space.
Welcome to Green Hills Butterfly Ranch. Home to the largest butterfly display in Belize, it features over 100 species of butterflies - including the Blue Morpho which is one of the main attractions at the farm.
Surrounded by a botanical garden with more than 150 plants, shrubs and trees, there's even a hummingbird viewing area. It's truly a natural paradise.
And of course, the hiking and photo opportunities are unlimited.
We're proud to be offering this incredible experience to our guests. (Contact us to see how you can pair it with our other adventures!) We sat down with Owner Robin Greaves to find out what makes this magical place such a unique experience for visitors to Belize.
What was your inspiration behind the butterfly-farm?
We originally set out to purchase a large piece of rainforest with a view to preserving it and protecting the habitat for the wildlife.
Having a lifelong interest in butterflies, when the Ranch became available it was a dream come true for our family. The Butterfly Farm presented the opportunity to not only preserve a large piece of a rainforest but to also employ a significant amount of people creating meaningful professional jobs without having to cut down a single tree!
What's the most enjoyable part about the daily activities at the farm?
By far the most rewarding aspect of running the Butterfly Farm is when visitors who planned to spend about 40 minutes with us are still here after a couple of hours. Some have even described their visit to Green Hills as the highlight of their vacation in Belize!
Every day there is something new and exciting to see. Whether it's a new bird or a new animal captured in one of our many motion activated cameras. One never tires of the beauty and splendor of the butterflies in our flight area. The continuously changing kaleidoscope of color and the sheer grace of the motion of an iridescent butterfly in flight. Every new species that we manage to introduce adds a new dimension to our sense of achievement.
What should a guest expect when visiting the butterfly farm?
Once you have taken in the splendor of the butterflies, there's the marvel of visiting the caterpillar and pupa house and witnessing all of the stages of metamorphosis from egg through caterpillar and into a full adult butterfly. For many guests, this is their first real up-close-and-personal experience with butterflies!
And of course, there's more. Our newly created hummingbird viewing area presents further great photo opportunities. Some visitors have spent more than 3 hours just watching and photographing the hummingbirds alone!
Green Hills continues to improve as we add more magnificent butterfly species and we ourselves learn more about the natural wonders of the jungles of Belize.
It truly is an incredible place. Ready to get a closer look? Green Hills is only a short trip from our jungle sanctuary at Ka'ana. Talk to our team today to plan your next Belizean journey.