We review the distribution and life history of this rare and elusive birdwing, endemic to Borneo, known only from ten isolated localities and one major cluster of sites – Mt Kinabalu. We judge ‘Vulnerable’ as a fair recent assessment for this species in the Red Data List of IUCN (Böhm, 2018).We review what is known of the evolutionary relationships of Troides species and outline the work underway to place andromache in this context through work at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, partly by profiling 100-year-old DNA from museum specimens.We discuss the risk factors of forest clearance, increasing forest patchiness, drying out and regional temperature rise due to global warming on the future of this species.We describe our nascent methodology for breeding free-flying birdwings which will stay close to village homestays because of the provision of abundant food sources for larvae and adults. The aim is to create a new income stream for the homestay owners through ecotourism.We discuss the promotional and fund-raising strategies we are employing to aid the conservation of this noble butterfly, and the promise of raising conservation awareness generally, through art.