California Darner dragonfly resting on honeysuckle – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 400, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
On the 26th of June I had a darner dragonfly land on a honeysuckle in front of me, that dragonfly was a California Darner. I wrote a post about the dragonfly on the 29th of June where I misidentified it as a Blue-eyed Darner.
I shared the image above on iNaturalist soon after I came home from the mountains. Yesterday I noticed that two people had correctly identified the dragonfly I photographed as a California Darner. Blue-eyed and California Darners do look similar. Blue-eyed Darners are far more common in Utah whereas California Darners are not.
Both darner species have blue eyes and black and turquoise blue markings on their abdomens but there are differences which I didn’t notice until after I had posted this darner and was corrected on iNaturalist. This post is about sharing the correct identification of this stunning dragonfly.
I learn something new everyday!
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my insect and spider images.
I love this photo! Sent me back in time. Let’s go ‘splorin~
And it is very, very beautiful under any name.
They are so pretty. I think it is hard to identify there are so many and so similar in looks.