Northern Flicker
A large spotted woodpecker hunts ants on Kansas lawns and prairie edges, then flashes a white rump and yellow—or sometimes reddish—flight feathers when disturbed.
Texas, United States: places and wildlife — page 2
Browse the published Explore collection for Texas, United States. Open a discovery for its field guide, practical details, and background.
Red-winged Blackbird
One Cheyenne Bottoms cattail can hold two identification lessons: a glossy male turning hidden red shoulders into a territorial flag, and a heavily streaked female moving low enough to be mistaken for a sparrow.
Killdeer
A shorebird without a shore runs across Kansas gravel, flashes two breast bands, and sometimes performs an apparently broken wing to move danger away from eggs hidden in plain sight.
Black-tailed Jackrabbit
A Western Kansas hare becomes a pair of black-tipped ears, a still body in a shallow form, and finally a flashing black upper tail carried through long open-country bounds.
American Badger
Kansas’s broadest weasel reads the prairie from below, opening prey burrows with long foreclaws and leaving fans of soil that may outlast the animal’s brief nocturnal appearance.
Plains Pocket Gopher
The Plains Pocket Gopher is usually a landscape rather than a sighting: fresh fan-shaped soil, a plugged side entrance, and a loose procession of mounds mapping a sealed tunnel below.
Nine-banded Armadillo
An armored nocturnal digger is pushing north through Kansas creek corridors, leaving cone-shaped feeding holes before its long snout and banded back appear.
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.
Interior Least Tern
A Nebraska river can erase and rebuild this tiny tern’s nursery: two or three camouflaged eggs lie on nearly bare sand while adults hover for fish above the channel.
American Crow
Large all-black bird with a heavy bill, familiar caw, and remarkably observant social life
Great Horned Owl
Massive owl with ear tufts, a deep paired hoot, and formidable dusk hunting ability
Barn Owl
Pale heart-faced owl that floats low over fields while listening for prey beneath grass
Common Grackle
Long-tailed blackbird with a pale eye, bronze gloss, and a rusty mechanical voice
American Goldfinch
Small bouncing finch with black wings, a musical flight call, and dramatic seasonal plumage
House Sparrow
Chunky introduced sparrow closely tied to buildings, livestock areas, sidewalks, and busy human settlement
European Starling
Glossy introduced bird with a pointed bill, triangular wings, and astonishingly coordinated winter flocks
Muskrat
Stocky aquatic rodent with a vertically flattened tail, compact lodge, and busy wetland feeding routes
American Mink
Dark, low-slung mustelid moving quickly along water edges while hunting on land and underwater
Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel
Slender ground squirrel striped with alternating pale lines and spots, often upright beside prairie burrows
Bullsnake
Large blotched snake that hisses loudly, imitates a rattlesnake convincingly, but remains nonvenomous
Plains Garter Snake
Striped garter snake with a bold orange-yellow back stripe, especially at home near prairie wetlands
Plains Lubber Grasshopper
The Plains Lubber is the heavy, short-winged answer to the idea that every grasshopper should fly: an outsized prairie walker patterned in green, brown, pink, black, and pale dots.
Great Plains Giant Tiger Beetle
A flightless tiger beetle patrols Kansas after dark like a small black hunting machine built almost entirely from legs and jaws.
Southern Plains Bumble Bee
This long-faced native bumble bee connects deep prairie flowers to an underground social colony that lasts only one growing season.
Common Sunflower
Kansas’s familiar sunflower is a branching wild annual, not simply a smaller version of the single-headed crop plant.
Little Bluestem
Little bluestem turns an ordinary-looking summer bunchgrass into one of the prairie’s most luminous copper winter plants.
Purple Poppy Mallow
Wine-colored flowers seem scattered directly across the ground because this prairie mallow grows outward instead of upward.
Eastern Cottonwood
Cottonwoods trace water across the plains, their restless leaves revealing river corridors from miles away.
Western Soapberry
Clusters of amber soapberries glow like marbles after the leaves fall, making this modest plains tree easiest to recognize in winter.
Sand Milkweed
Sand milkweed hugs loose prairie sand with thick woolly leaves, looking almost sculpted by the drought and wind around it.
Soapweed Yucca
Soapweed gives western Nebraska an evergreen silhouette and stages one of the prairie’s most intimate partnerships with a tiny moth.
Eastern Redcedar
Eastern redcedar can be both winter shelter and ecological warning: a useful native tree that transforms grassland when fire disappears.
Missouri Evening Primrose
Its lemon-yellow flowers open toward evening, transforming a harsh limestone glade just as sphinx moths begin to fly.
Rose Verbena
From a distance Rose Verbena can masquerade as a patch of phlox; at knee level, its hairy trailing stems, rooted nodes, and opposite three-part toothed leaves give the glade plant away.
Shortleaf Pine
Shortleaf pine once shaped vast Ozark landscapes, and restoration is rebuilding the open, fire-influenced woodland beneath its crowns.
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.
Pronghorn
Neither deer nor antelope, the pronghorn pairs extraordinary eyesight and speed with horns that shed their outer sheath.
Florida Manatee
The Florida manatee moves between rivers, estuaries, springs, and seagrass beds, surfacing quietly in waters shared with boats.
Common Bottlenose Dolphin
A curved dorsal fin, robust gray body, and short bottle-shaped beak mark a dolphin that finds prey through both vision and echolocation.
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.
Red Drum
Copper-bronze sides, blunt head, and one or more black spots near the tail identify a drum moving from marsh creek to open coast.
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.
Zebra Longwing
Long narrow black wings crossed by pale yellow bands identify Florida’s state butterfly, a pollen-feeder with unusually long adult life.