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Coffee Break

9:30 Coffee Break: Butterfly Songs

These monarch butterflies were photographed in Brookings County, S.D., by USDA entomologist Jonathan Lundgren in 2014.
These monarch butterflies were photographed in Brookings County, S.D., by USDA entomologist Jonathan Lundgren in 2014.Courtesy Jonathan Lundgren / USDA

by Jill Riley and Sean McPherson

June 05, 2015

Over the past 25 years, nearly a billion monarch butterflies have vanished. As butterfly and bee populations have decreased, scientists and the general public have become increasingly concerned with protecting these vital pollinators.

The White House has also become involved in the work to protect butterflies. President Barack Obama has proposed turning the I-35 corridor, which stretches from Duluth, Minn., all the way to the Mexican border, into a friendly habitat for monarch butterflies by lining it with milkweed and other habitat plants.

Not only is the I-35 corridor surrounded by vegetation and frequent sunshine, it aligns with the butterflies' annual migration from Mexico into the northern U.S. and Canada. Plus, who doesn't like seeing butterflies?

What's more, it turns out there are a bunch of songs that reference butterflies.

So for today's 9:30 Coffee Break, what songs do you want to hear that have "butterfly" or "butterflies" in the title or lyrics? Send us your requests.

Songs Played


Dolly Parton "Love is Like a Butterfly"
Sonic Youth "Drunken Butterfly"
The Smashing Pumpkins "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
Mason Jennings "Butterfly"
Bob Lind "Elusive Butterfly"
The Presidents of the United States of America "Truckstop Butterfly"

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