This delightful butterfly flies in wet, upland and lowland areas with Vacciniumplants, usually in the vicinity of trees, and may be locally abundant even though more globally it is a scarce insect. I have only seen it for certain at one extended site in Switzerland, within which there are at least two more or less discrete local colonies. At the same site, both violet coppers and moorland clouded yellows fly - species that share the foodplant. It is worth paying particular attention to Boloria butterflies if these other butterflies are present.

The cranberry fritillary is a lively species, rarely settling in good weather, though quick to go down when clouds cover the sun. Both sexes can be seen at nectar but in my experience they are soon up and off again. The butterfly closely resembles mountain and shepherd's fritillaries, both of which are likely to be seen in the same places, but is much more heavily branded above and beneath. In particular, the markings on the underside of the forewing are dark and clear, while in the other two species these are faint, as if rubbed out. This is evident even in lightly marked individuals, and similarly, even heavily marked shepherd's fritillaries have only faint markings beneath the wing. The Balkan fritillary, Boloria graeca, also has dark markings on the underside forewing but there is no geographical overlap with this species.

Females lay their eggs on or near the foodplant. The only egg I have found (I watched it being laid) was laid on a different plant, but near Vaccinium. The caterpillars hibernate while still small and develop in the spring, to emerge as adults in June or July, flying until late August. In the far north of Europe, the seasonal cycle is said to take two years.