The Badlands

Photo: Golden Eagles. Photo: Cindy Goeddel.

If you are looking for desert-like habitats in the Great Plains, you will not be disappointed. The South Dakota and Nebraska ‘Badlands’ have arid, rocky terrain and extreme temperatures that commonly make up our vision of the American southwest. This ancient landscape was called ‘mako sica’ – literally ‘bad lands’ – by the indigenous Lakota people, members of the Ogalala Sioux Tribe. Today, parts of the Badlands National Park are managed in cooperation with the Ogalala Sioux, and visitors can learn more about their cultural heritage at the White River Visitor Center. 

The Badlands are also home to some of the most important fossil sites in the country, the fossils and bones of sabre tooth cats, rhinoceroses, and marine reptiles have been found here, along with plants from the late Eocene and Oligocene epochs. 

Birds of the Badlands

Birds
Birds

Birds of the Great Plains

The Great Plains is a shifting landscape made up of many interdependent ecosystems. What we evoke with the very idea of the Great Plains is, of course, extensive grasslands for which it was named. The Great Plains is the world’s largest intact grasslands.

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Wetlands
Birds

Wetlands

In addition to native species like the Northern Pintail and Piping Plover, the Central Platte Valley and Prairie Potholes are important migration stops for millions of birds every year.

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Woodlands
Birds

Woodlands

Along the rivers of the Great Plains, woodlands are abundant with birds that thrive in the treetops shelter.

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