Péacóg in Gaeilge. The Peacock, Aglais io, is the most striking of the garden Vanessids in Ireland, recorded in every one of the 26 counties and unmistakable when both wings are open.

Identify it in four steps

Habitat in Ireland

The Peacock is a hedgerow, woodland-edge, and garden butterfly. It uses nectar sources across the flying season, from March Blackthorn blossom and Dandelion through summer Buddleia, Marjoram, and Devil’s-bit Scabious into late-season Ivy flowers, and depends entirely on Common Nettle (Urtica dioica) for its larval foodplant.

Adults overwinter in dry, sheltered spaces: hollow trees, sheds, outbuildings, and unheated porches. Warm February and March days trigger emergence, and the first Irish records each spring are almost always of hibernated adults on garden nectar.

Where to see it

Recorded in every county of Ireland in the National Biodiversity Data Centre butterfly atlas 2014-2019, with a strong garden-recording bias, and listed Least Concern on the Butterfly Conservation Ireland Red List (2010, revised 2019).

Related species

Recorded in 22 of 26 Irish counties in the National Biodiversity Data Centre atlas, with the strongest concentrations in Munster and eastern Leinster. Numbers dropped through the 2010s and partially recovered from 2019 onward.¹

Source: National Biodiversity Data Centre butterfly atlas 2014 to 2019, and Butterfly Conservation Ireland annual review 2024.

Every butterfly in Ireland: a photographic species catalogue

Thirty-three resident and migrant species, photographed and identified. Distribution cited to the National Biodiversity Data Centre. Conservation status cited to NPWS and Butterfly Conservation Ireland.