Butterfly World

Coconut Creek’s Butterfly World is the first butterfly house in the U.S., and the largest in the world. Founded in 1988 by local butterfly enthusiast Ronald Boender, the park contains butterfly aviaries, botanical gardens, and a working butterfly farm and research center that Boender spent years perfecting. In total, the park is home to over 20,000 butterflies, and over 150 different species can be spotted over the course of the year.

Visitors can also explore two aviaries for tropical birds or even participate in a lorikeet encounter with the park’s aviculture research staff. Originally from Australia, these friendly, rainbow-feathered birds are always happy to show off for guests (especially if you give them a cup of nectar). Near the birds, you’ll find the park’s “secret garden,” which contains one of the world’s most extensive passion flower collections.

Other highlights of Butterfly World include the Tinalandia Bridge—a swinging suspension bridge that is a replica of one in Western Ecuador, where Boender studied rainforest butterflies. Meanwhile, at the live Bug Zoo, you can find scorpions, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, tarantulas and many other fascinating creepy crawlers.

Butterfly World champions the North American “Bring Back the Butterflies” campaign: a program that supplies free butterfly gardening materials to anyone interested. Since its start in the ’80s, this campaign has resulted in thousands of new butterfly habitats and increased butterfly populations across the continent.

In the onsite Butterfly Garden Center, Butterfly World stocks all the hard-to-find plant species you’ll need to turn your own home into a butterfly sanctuary. The park also offers monthly butterfly gardening classes for especially ambitious butterfly hobbyists. The Center keeps gardening info sheets for every region of North America, so even if you live far from Florida, you’ll be primed for success in all your butterfly-raising adventures.