Bay Nature Butterfly Walkabout with Liam O'Brien
Join Liam O'Brien, author of Butterflies of the Bay Area, for a hike at Mount Diablo's Mitchell Canyon in search of butterflies on Sunday, September 28 from 11am - 2pm. This event is brought to you by Bay Nature.
The hike will a gentle paced walk to search for butterflies on an out-and-back hike along a route featured in Liam's upcoming book. We'll pause partway along the route to eat lunch then continue on our way, keeping our eyes peeled for the more than 30 butterfly species that call this area home. This hike is free for Bay Nature Members.
More information about the hike, Bay Nature, and Liam can be found at the link to register below.
Debuts October 2025 — Butterflies of the Bay Area and (Slightly) Beyond
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
All-Encompassing Guide Featuring Enchanting Portraits Celebrates the Butterflies of the Bay Area and (Slightly) Beyond
Self-taught butterfly obsessive Liam O’Brien shares his passion for these beloved and storied insects in this informative and surprisingly personal guidebook.
BERKELEY, CALIF. — Following an HIV diagnosis in 2000, thespian-turned-lepidopterist Liam O’Brien leaned into his passion for butterflies as a source of wonder. After decades of observing, counting, and (responsibly) capturing these scaled winged beauties, he became an ambassador for the species. In his debut book Butterflies of the Bay Area (and Slightly Beyond): An Illustrated Guide, O’Brien chronicles 135 varieties of butterfly with vim and vivid hand-painted illustrations to introduce readers to the breadth and beauty of butterfly biodiversity of this region.
With over 700 hand-drawn illustrations depicting both adult and caterpillar forms of each species, this book offers a stunning and romantic catalog of the region’s lepidoptera. Entries include habitats, host plants, life phases, and tips on where to find each species of butterfly. O’Brien also recounts the best butterfly walks of the Greater Bay Area, from Monterey to Marin, and offers tips for finding, photographing, and fighting for these storied bugs. Interwoven are insights from O’Brien’s own deepening fixation with butterflies and the plight of protecting them from endangerment.
Named a Local Hero by Bay Nature in 2014, O’Brien has led efforts to restore Variable Checkerspots to the Presidio, monitored the endangered Mission Blue butterfly in the Marin Headlands, and has run the San Francisco butterfly count for the last 25 years—in the region that boasts the largest density of counts in the nation. His meticulously illustrated survey of Bay Area butterflies springs from the conviction that naming the creature in front of you is the first move toward conservation.
“In this book, I’m aiming for something a little different from the classic field guide,” says O’Brien. “Here is a book that celebrates realistic paintings, pithy anecdotes, conservation, and the downright joy these bugs have given me. Given all of us.”
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Liam O’Brien is a self-taught lepidopterist and illustrator. He used to be a professional actor, having appeared in Les Misérables on Broadway, but shifted his powers of observation towards nature several decades back. He’s fascinated not only by butterflies but also by our relationships to them. He surveyed the county of San Francisco, where he lives, for which butterfly species remained in 2007 and 2009 and has been involved in the preservation and restoration of several local species throughout the Bay Area. O’Brien was the recipient of Bay Nature magazine’s Local Hero Award for Environmental Education in 2014. He lives in San Francisco. For more of his work, follow him on Instagram @robber_fly.
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