Bald Eagle
A fish-eating sea eagle whose recovery turned a once-imperiled national emblem back into a familiar sight over major waters.
Alaska, United States: places and wildlife
Browse the published Explore collection for Alaska, United States. Open a discovery for its field guide, practical details, and background.
Sandhill Crane
About a million Sandhill Cranes use Nebraska’s central Platte as a spring refueling corridor, commuting between shallow river roosts and working fields in waves of rolling calls.
Willow Ptarmigan
Feathered feet, seasonal white plumage, and a taste for willow let this Arctic grouse remain active through Alaska’s long winter.
Alaska Blackfish
This small Arctic fish survives warm, stagnant summer ponds and oxygen-poor winter water by gulping air into a specialized esophagus.
Glacier Bay Water Shrew
Known from a small part of Southeast Alaska, this rare semi-aquatic shrew swims cold streams on fringed feet and hunts underwater prey.
American Black Bear
America’s most widespread bear is often easier to recognize by tracks, clawed logs, and overturned stones than by a direct sighting.
Gray Wolf
Long legs, a broad muzzle, and purposeful travel distinguish a wolf whose family life shapes northern forests and human debate.
Moose
Long legs, a heavy overhanging muzzle, and an appetite for twigs and aquatic plants make the moose unmistakably built for northern country.
Grizzly Bear
A shoulder hump, dished face, and long foreclaws distinguish the grizzly, while food and space—not aggression—govern most of its movements.
Polar Bear
Long neck, small ears, paddle-like feet, and dense water-shedding fur reveal a bear evolved to hunt seals across moving Arctic ice.
Humpback Whale
Knobbed head, extraordinarily long flippers, and deeply notched tail flukes identify a whale that migrates between feeding and breeding seas.
Orca
Black-and-white pattern, tall dorsal fin, and a family-specific acoustic world make the orca much more than a generic “killer whale.”
Harbor Seal
Round head, spotted coat, and V-shaped nostrils distinguish the true seal most regularly seen around Rhode Island.
Black-capped Chickadee
Black cap, white cheeks, small bib, and a curious approach make this year-round northern songbird a foundational backyard identification.
Common Raven
Heavy bill, shaggy throat, and wedge-shaped tail separate the raven from crows as it works cliffs, tundra, forests, and towns.
Ruffed Grouse
Mottled bark-colored plumage, a dark tail band, and the male’s accelerating wing-drumming suit dense young forest better than open lawn.
Hermit Thrush
Spotted breast, plain face, and a reddish tail contrasting with a browner back identify the thrush behind one of Vermont’s clearest woodland songs.
Osprey
Dark eye stripe, kinked long wings, and reversible outer toes identify the fish specialist nesting beside Oregon waters.
Northern Pike
Duckbill snout, rear-set fins, and pale bean-shaped spots identify the pike waiting almost motionless beside cover.
Chinook Salmon
Black gums, spotted tail lobes, and immense migrations identify a salmon whose life carries marine nutrients far inland.
Pacific Halibut
Both eyes migrate to the dark right side as this broad predator changes from an upright larva into a seafloor hunter.
Common Green Darner
Large size, bright green thorax, and a dark bull’s-eye on the forehead help identify a darner capable of continental movement.
Sitka Spruce
Sharp four-sided needles, thin scaly bark, and enormous coastal stature identify the spruce that thrives where ocean moisture meets mountains.
Anchorage Museum
Art, science, history, Indigenous knowledge, and the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center meet without reducing Alaska to wilderness scenery.
University of Alaska Museum of the North
The Gallery of Alaska joins archaeology, wildlife, art, paleontology, and cultural belongings collected across an enormous state.
Alaska State Museum
The museum connects Alaska Native cultures, Russian America, territorial government, industry, migration, and contemporary art.
Alaska Native Heritage Center
The Gathering Place and wooded lake trail introduce the distinct peoples and regions of Alaska through community-led programs rather than static cultural types.
Sealaska Heritage Institute
The Walter Soboleff Building holds monumental formline glass, a hand-adzed clan house, exhibitions, archives, and language work.
Pratt Museum
Indoor exhibitions and a forested outdoor campus connect marine research, homesteading, Alaska Native cultures, contemporary art, and working-waterfront life.
Alutiiq Museum
Ancestral tools, language, contemporary art, repatriation work, and the adjacent Ancestors’ Memorial show how research and cultural renewal can operate together.
Kodiak History Museum
The 1808 Russian-American Magazin moves through Alutiiq homeland, colonial trade, fishing, earthquakes, military life, and a continually changing island community.
Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center
Jilkaat Aani, mission history, mining, fishing, photography, and community collections unfold at the edge of Lynn Canal.
Totem Heritage Center
Nineteenth-century Tlingit and Haida poles recovered from village sites stand close enough for careful reading, while contemporary Northwest Coast art and classes explain continuity.
Sitka History Museum
Objects, photographs, models, and community archives make a useful orientation to the city’s layered shoreline before visiting its dispersed historic sites.
Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum
Rare cars, winter adaptations, photographs, and carefully paired fashion turn technology into a social history rather than a showroom.
Alaska Aviation Museum
Four hangars connect pioneer flights, wartime aircraft, rescue, commercial aviation, and the machines that made remote Alaska more reachable.
Valdez Museum and Historical Archive
The museum connects the 1964 earthquake, Old Town Valdez, the trans-Alaska pipeline, the Exxon Valdez spill, transportation, and regional Indigenous history.
Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum
Oral histories, ivory art, mining material, the first Iditarod sled, and a restored telephone booth place boomtown mythology beside longer regional life.
Ilanka Cultural Center
The Native Village of Eyak operates a museum, tribal library, language and arts programs, and an articulated orca skeleton tied to a community recovery effort.
Wrangell Museum
The gallery moves from ancient occupation and clan history through Russian, British, and American rule, gold rushes, fishing, logging, and modern Wrangell.
Hammer Museum
More than 2,500 hammers move from trades and rituals to patents, medical tools, art, and deliberate oddities.
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
Restored Skagway structures, oral histories, the White Pass corridor, and the Chilkoot Trail reveal how a global stampede transformed Tlingit homeland.
Sitka National Historical Park
Forest, estuary, poles, and battle ground hold Tlingit and Russian histories together, grounded in 1804 battle site and totem trail
Russian Bishop’s House
Completed in 1842, the restored log building contains chapel, residence, school history, and material evidence of Russian America.
Independence Mine State Historical Park
The abandoned hard-rock complex at Hatcher Pass shows industrial ambition at a scale that winter, avalanche terrain, and transportation continually challenged.
Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark
Concentration buildings, power systems, worker housing, rail history, and the nearby Root Glacier reveal how extraordinary ore and capital produced a remote company town.
Baranof Castle State Historic Site
Tlingit use, Russian fortification, the 1867 transfer ceremony, and Alaska statehood observances are interpreted on a small rock above downtown.
Totem Bight State Historical Park
The coastal rainforest park grew from a New Deal-era program in which Native carvers restored and copied abandoned village poles.