Humpback Whale
Knobbed head, extraordinarily long flippers, and deeply notched tail flukes identify a whale that migrates between feeding and breeding seas.
Delaware, United States: places and wildlife — page 2
Browse the published Explore collection for Delaware, United States. Open a discovery for its field guide, practical details, and background.
Blue Hen
The Blue Hen is a domestic chicken tradition—not a wild species—whose slate-toned plumage became inseparable from Delaware identity.
Osprey
Dark eye stripe, kinked long wings, and reversible outer toes identify the fish specialist nesting beside Oregon waters.
Largemouth Bass
A jaw extending behind the eye, deep body, and dark side stripe separate largemouth bass from their smaller-mouthed relatives.
Bluegill
A deep compressed body, dark ear flap, and blue-green cheek identify a widespread sunfish that rewards close looking.
Weakfish
A slender silver body, oblique spots, yellowish fins, and drumming muscles identify this estuarine member of the drum family.
Monarch Butterfly
Orange wings with heavy black veins identify a migrant whose caterpillars can eat only milkweeds and whose journey outlasts any one summer adult.
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.
Black Swallowtail
Paired rows of yellow spots and an orange-centered hindwing eye distinguish a butterfly whose striped caterpillar feeds on carrots’ wild relatives.
Say’s Firefly
A dark firefly with pale margins and an angular shield pattern, Say’s firefly turns summer dusk into species-specific communication.
Large-flowered Trillium
Three broad leaves, three white petals, and a flower held above a single whorl mark Ohio’s woodland wildflower.
Common Milkweed
Opposite broad leaves, milky sap, round pink flower clusters, and warty pods identify a plant central to monarch development.
Mountain Laurel
Glossy evergreen leaves and clustered pink-white cups patterned with ten pockets identify Connecticut’s state flower.
American Holly
Spiny evergreen leaves, pale bark, and red winter fruit identify a native holly once central to Delaware wreath making.
Northern Red Oak
Bristle-tipped leaf lobes, shallow-striped bark, and broad acorns distinguish New Jersey’s state tree from rounded-lobed white oaks.
Tulip Tree
Four-lobed leaves with a notched flat tip and green-orange tulip-like flowers identify one of eastern North America’s tallest hardwoods.
Red Maple
Red buds, flowers, leaf stalks, and paired winged seeds recur across the year on Rhode Island’s adaptable state tree.
Loblolly Pine
Arkansas’s state tree is a fast-growing southern pine whose long three-needle bundles, broad bark plates, and working-forest history shape the Coastal Plain.
Northern Mockingbird
Arkansas’s state bird patrols open neighborhood territories, flashing white wings and stitching other birds’ sounds into long improvised songs.
Brown Pelican
Louisiana’s state bird patrols bays in low files, then folds into spectacular headfirst dives for schooling fish near the surface.
Bald Cypress
Louisiana’s state tree is a deciduous conifer built for floodplain life, capable of forming ancient forests where buttressed trunks rise from seasonal water.
Carolina Wren
A warm-brown wren with a white eyebrow lives close to cover across South Carolina and serves as the state bird.
Carolina Wolf Spider
North America’s largest wolf spider patrols open ground after dark and is South Carolina’s official state spider.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
This large striped butterfly, South Carolina’s state butterfly, moves between tree canopies, flowers, puddles, and host plants.
Carolina Mantid
South Carolina’s state insect is a gray, green, or brown ambush predator of gardens, old fields, and woodland edges.
Diamondback terrapin
Pale spotted skin, a patterned shell, and a life between salt and fresh water distinguish Maryland’s official state reptile.
Baltimore checkerspot
Black wings checked with cream and orange identify a wet-meadow butterfly whose official status contrasts with its rarity in Maryland.
Baltimore oriole
Maryland’s orange-and-black state bird whistles from leafy edges and suspends a woven pouch nest near a branch tip.
Atlantic blue crab
Paddle-shaped rear legs, blue claws, and a life tied to brackish Chesapeake water distinguish Maryland’s state crustacean.
Striped bass
Seven or eight continuous dark stripes mark a silvery predator that uses tidal rivers as nurseries and the coast as a highway.
Black-eyed Susan
Rough-haired stems and golden rays around a raised brown center make Maryland’s state flower a familiar open-ground wildflower.
White oak
Maryland’s state tree supports insects and wildlife; rounded leaf lobes and pale bark reward a slower look in mature woodland.
Delaware Art Museum
Wilmington’s art museum pairs an exceptional illustration collection with British Pre-Raphaelite painting, American art, and a nine-acre sculpture garden.
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Henry Francis du Pont’s vast home, American decorative arts, research library, and naturalistic garden reward a visit planned in distinct chapters.
Hagley Museum and Library
On the Brandywine, original du Pont powder works, working machinery, a workers’ community, and the family’s first American home make industry tangible.
Cape Henlopen State Park
Beaches, low dunes, maritime woodland, and migrating shorebirds meet at the Atlantic–Delaware Bay junction, with trails that reach very different habitats.
Delaware Museum of Nature & Science
An interactive regional journey connects the state’s dunes, marshes, forest, and cypress swamps to wider stories of adaptation and evolution.
Air Mobility Command Museum
A historic Dover hangar and outdoor aircraft tell how airlift, refueling, and the people behind them connect distant places.
New Castle Court House Museum
Inside the 1732 courthouse, guided tours connect colonial law, the 1776 separation vote, and later struggles over freedom.
Trap Pond State Park
A southern Delaware millpond and freshwater wetland shelter one of America’s northernmost natural bald-cypress stands.
Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge
A 12-mile wildlife drive threads Delaware Bay salt marsh, managed freshwater pools, and uplands where migrating birds gather.
Mt. Cuba Center
A former estate now pairs formal and naturalistic gardens with research into which native plants best support Mid-Atlantic wildlife.
Nemours Estate
Alfred I. du Pont’s mansion, formal gardens, and chauffeur’s garage reveal both the spectacle and the machinery of an early twentieth-century estate.
Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge
A Delaware Bay refuge joins tidal marsh, freshwater wetlands, woodland trails, and a shorebird beach where access follows the nesting season.
Delaware Botanic Gardens
Piet Oudolf’s meadow opens onto woodland and tidal Pepper Creek, letting visitors see how designed planting and coastal-plain ecology overlap.
Delaware Seashore State Park
Six miles of barrier-coast beach frame the Indian River Inlet, where bridge views, surf, bayside water, and maritime history make different outings.
Fort Delaware State Park
Board the Delaware City ferry to an 1859 Union fort where reenactors, a cannon demonstration, and the prisoner-of-war story meet the river landscape.
Biggs Museum of American Art
On Dover’s historic Green, regional painting, silver, furniture, illustration, and changing exhibitions make American art feel close to home.