Ponderosa Pine
Ponderosa pine gives the Pine Ridge a western forest silhouette and reaches the eastern edge of its natural continental range in Nebraska.
Nebraska, United States: places and wildlife — page 4
Browse the published Explore collection for Nebraska, United States. Open a discovery for its field guide, practical details, and background.
Limber Pine
A few native limber pines reach east from the Rockies into Kimball County, forming one of Nebraska’s most surprising tree populations.
Rocky Mountain Juniper
Rocky Mountain juniper threads blue-green columns through Nebraska’s western escarpments, where it can meet and hybridize with eastern redcedar.
Paper Birch
Paper birch survives in cool Niobrara canyons as a remnant of a colder climate, far south of its familiar northern forests.
Eastern Redcedar
Eastern redcedar can be both winter shelter and ecological warning: a useful native tree that transforms grassland when fire disappears.
American Burying Beetle
North America’s largest carrion beetle converts one small vertebrate carcass into an underground brood chamber, then does something exceptional for an insect: both parents tend and feed the larvae.
Missouri Evening Primrose
Its lemon-yellow flowers open toward evening, transforming a harsh limestone glade just as sphinx moths begin to fly.
Big Bluestem
Missouri’s prairie giant builds a warm-season canopy above the flowers and a far larger architecture belowground, where dense roots helped create and still stabilize tallgrass soil.
Pronghorn
Neither deer nor antelope, the pronghorn pairs extraordinary eyesight and speed with horns that shed their outer sheath.
Black-capped Chickadee
Black cap, white cheeks, small bib, and a curious approach make this year-round northern songbird a foundational backyard identification.
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.
Northern Pike
Duckbill snout, rear-set fins, and pale bean-shaped spots identify the pike waiting almost motionless beside cover.
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.
Big Sagebrush
Three-toothed wedge leaves, silvery foliage, and a resinous scent identify a shrub that shelters far more life than its muted color suggests.
Western Prairie Fringed Orchid
White flowers become visible near dusk, when their fragrance and long nectar spurs recruit large night-flying moths.
Silver Buffaloberry
A wind-pollinated plains shrub turns silver foliage and scarlet fruit into valuable food and cover along dry northern waterways.
Green Ash
Green ash once seemed almost indestructible across northern towns and river bottoms; emerald ash borer has changed that assumption permanently.
Western Tiger Swallowtail
A big yellow swallowtail patrols Black Hills streams and canyon edges, often descending to damp mineral-rich ground.
White-lined Sphinx
This powerful moth can look like a hummingbird at dusk, hovering precisely while its long tongue reaches deep tubular flowers.
Scarlet Globemallow
Scarlet globemallow places brilliant orange cups only inches above dry prairie soil, often where little else appears lush.
Iowa Skipper
Despite its name, the Iowa skipper is a prairie-range insect rather than an Iowa-only species, and intact grassland determines where it persists.
Prairie Blazing Star
Tall violet spikes begin blooming at the top, turning a prairie’s normal bottom-up expectations literally upside down.
Rattlesnake Master
Pale globes and swordlike leaves make this carrot-family plant look as if it belongs to a completely different botanical neighborhood.
Shagbark Hickory
Long bark strips lift away from an old trunk, creating both the tree’s name and summer roost crevices for bats.
Swamp White Oak
Wind flips each leaf from deep green to silvery white, making this flood-tolerant oak shimmer above Midwestern bottomlands.
Antelope-horns Milkweed
Curved seed pods suggest antelope horns, while greenish flower balls feed early-season pollinators across dry southern prairie.
Piping Plover
A pale plover nests almost invisibly on open northern beaches where changing water and human disturbance can erase a season’s work.
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Spring males stamp, rattle, coo, and pivot on traditional dancing grounds called leks while hens quietly judge the performance.
Pallid Sturgeon
An ancient-looking fish is actually a living specialist of big, warm, sediment-rich rivers whose natural flow has been heavily altered.
Bighorn Sheep
Restored bighorn herds use Black Hills cliffs as escape terrain, but disease carried by domestic sheep remains a serious management concern.
Bobolink
A bubbling metallic song tumbles over spring grass from a bird that will later migrate all the way to southern South America.
Northern Mockingbird
Arkansas’s state bird patrols open neighborhood territories, flashing white wings and stitching other birds’ sounds into long improvised songs.
Sego Lily
Utah’s state flower rises sparsely from dry ground, each cup-shaped bloom carrying a purple eye and a yellow, hairy band that guides pollinators inward.
Two-tailed Swallowtail
Arizona’s enormous yellow state butterfly patrols canyon streams and gardens, flashing black tiger stripes and two tails on each hindwing.
Mountain Bluebird
Idaho’s state bird flashes an almost unbroken blue across open mountain and sage country, often hovering briefly before dropping onto ground prey.
Wyoming Indian Paintbrush
The brilliant color belongs mostly to bracts, while the true flowers are smaller and tucked among them.
Ohio Buckeye
Ohio’s namesake tree is a small-to-medium woodland understory species recognized by five leaflets, upright yellow-green flower clusters, and mahogany seeds marked with a pale eye.
Lake Sturgeon
An armor-plated fish can live for more than a century, migrating from Lake Winnebago into rocky rivers for a brief, spectacular spring spawn.
Walleye
Minnesota’s state fish is a low-light predator whose famous eyes, seasonal movements, and lake-by-lake management make it more interesting than a dinner plate.
Carolina Wolf Spider
North America’s largest wolf spider patrols open ground after dark and is South Carolina’s official state spider.
Baltimore oriole
Maryland’s orange-and-black state bird whistles from leafy edges and suspends a woven pouch nest near a branch tip.
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.
Brook Trout
Follow this jewel-colored char from shaded headwaters to Adirondack ponds, where water quality shapes its future.