Find out what an eastern, western and Canadian tiger swallowtail butterfly looks like and the best host plants to attract the caterpillars.
The Ultimate Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly Guide
Updated on Jan. 07, 2025
These striped yellow butterflies are a treat to spot in the garden. Here’s how to identify the different types of tiger swallowtail butterflies and attract them to your own backyard.
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Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly Identification
These butterflies are not dainty. Adults have a wingspan as small as 3 inches, but they can grow up to 5 1/2 inches across. Look for four black parallel stripes at the top of each wing and a solid black stripe along the base.
Female eastern swallowtails tend to have more blue on the hindwings than the males. The females sometimes display a dimorphic coloration of a darker black color that mimics the poisonous pipevine swallowtail.
- Thin yellow and black body
- Black and yellow tiger stripes on wings (on some females, black with shadow stripes)
- Wingspan ranges from 3 to 5 1/2 inches
- Blue marking near the bottom of the tail (females have more blue spots)
- Signature three-lobed hindwings
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Range
Look for eastern tiger swallowtails from the East Coast to the Great Plains. They’re often spotted in parks, suburbs, forests and fields.
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Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Host Plants
Adult butterflies sip the nectar of milkweed, Joe Pye weed, wild cherry and lilac. Caterpillars happily eat host plants such as wild cherry, tulip tree, cottonwood, sweetbay, willow and white ash.
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Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Caterpillars
Eastern swallowtail caterpillars are green with large yellow and black decoy eyespots. They also have orange “horns” they can extend when they feel threatened.
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Other Types of Tiger Swallowtails
Western and Canadian tiger swallowtails are smaller than eastern tigers, which have a slightly larger wingspan. Since these butterflies are almost identical, the best way to distinguish them is by their location.
Western tiger swallowtails are found from the Rocky Mountains westward; eastern tigers from the Great Plains eastward; look for Canadian tiger swallowtails in Central New England, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana and northward. Their range overlaps with eastern swallowtails.
The aptly named two-tailed swallowtail has two tails on each of its hindwings. Look for this butterfly from central Texas and central Nebraska westward.
Additional reporting by Kaitlin Stainbrook
