Butterflies eat mostly nectar but supplement their diet with a lot of other stuff and not all of that stuff seems appealing to us. The Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charitonius) butterfly in the video is feeding on bird droppings.
Yes, it's gross but urine and dung contain many salts and nutrients that butterflies need to survive, especially male butterflies who need to replace salts and nutrients they lost in the sperm package when mating.
Video by: Carolyn R. taken in the Backwoods Forest Preserve at MOSI
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