Save the date! The Monarch Blitz is around the corner

June 11, 2024 by Team Journey North

Mark your calendars for the eighth International Monarch Monitoring Blitz!

Every year, thousands of people from across Canada, Mexico and the United States join efforts to support monarch butterfly conservation by getting outdoors and collecting observations of monarch butterflies and milkweed plants. Be part of this vital trinational community science initiative by sharing your sightings from July 26 to Aug. 4, 2024!

The Monarch Blitz invites people across North America to look for monarch butterflies and milkweed plants and examine them for monarch eggs, caterpillars and chrysalids. Monarch Blitz data are uploaded and shared via the Trinational Monarch Knowledge Network, a central repository that combines data from various sources to assist researchers in performing large-scale temporal and spatial analyses. 

The data collected by volunteers like you help researchers answer key questions about monarch butterfly and milkweed distribution, the timing of their reproduction this year, and details about their habitat use. In turn, this information helps conservation practitioners identify and prioritize actions to conserve the species and its habitat.

To take part in the Monarch Blitz, please share your observations via Journey North by clicking "Sightings" at the top of the page.

Follow the Monarch Blitz on social media and share your love for monarch butterflies and your participation in this international conservation effort by using the hashtag #MonarchBlitz!

The Blitz is organized by the Trinational Monarch Conservation Science Partnership, a collaboration of organizations, including the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)Insectarium/Montréal Space for LifeEnvironment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the Monarch Joint VentureJourney North, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,  the Xerces Society for Invertebrate ConservationPROFAUNA AC/Correo Real Program, and Mexico’s Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (Conanp).

Learn more about what we accomplished together last year and learn how you can get involved here.