Find Nature In Iowa

Additional Wildlife of Iowa

To flesh out your understanding of the region’s natural history, here is a breakdown of the specific taxa you can expect to encounter in the Hawkeye State.

Birds (Avifauna) Iowa is a premier winter destination for the Bald Eagle. Because the locks and dams on the Mississippi River keep the water from freezing completely, eagles congregate in massive numbers to fish in the open tailwaters; towns like Keokuk and Davenport host thousands of birds from January to March. The American Goldfinch is the state bird, a year-round resident that relies heavily on the seeds of thistles and sunflowers found in fence rows and prairies. In the summer, the Bobolink is a key indicator species for grassland health, known for its bubbling, R2-D2-like song and its incredible migration to Argentina.

Mammals The American Bison has been reintroduced to the tallgrass prairie remnants at Neal Smith and Broken Kettle Grasslands. These herds are managed not just for tourism but as ecological tools; their wallowing creates ephemeral pools for amphibians, and their grazing patterns increase plant diversity. The River Otter is a major conservation success; after being extirpated, they were reintroduced in the 1980s and can now be found in all 99 counties. White-tailed Deer are ubiquitous, thriving in the edge habitats created by the mix of forest and agriculture.

Insects The Monarch Butterfly is ecologically tied to Iowa, as the state lies in the heart of the “corn belt” which was historically the milkweed belt. Efforts to plant milkweed in roadside ditches are critical for the population’s survival. The Poweshiek Skipperling is a small, critically endangered butterfly that was once common in the tallgrass prairie but now hangs on in only a few tiny, high-quality remnants. The Regal Fritillary is another prairie specialist, a large, showy butterfly that requires native violets for its larvae to feed on.

Plants The Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum) is an icon of the deep-soil prairie. Its leaves orient north-south to minimize surface area exposure to the midday sun, and its taproot can extend 15 feet down to find water. The Wild Rose is the state flower, blooming pink in early summer along roadsides. In the unique ecosystem of the Driftless Area, you can find the Golden Saxifrage, a rare plant restricted to the cold, wet microclimates of the algific slopes.

Fungi Iowa has a fervent culture surrounding Morel mushrooms. The hunting season in May is driven by soil temperature and rainfall, with foragers checking the bases of dead American Elms. Pheasant Back (Dryad’s Saddle) is another common spring mushroom, smelling strongly of cucumber or watermelon rind. In the autumn, the Giant Puffball is frequently found in grassy meadows and forest edges, looking like a misplaced volleyball and edible only when the interior is pure white.

Iowa Biodiversity Profile

Iowa is biologically defined by its position “Between Two Rivers”—the Missouri to the west and the Mississippi to the east. While the interior is widely known for its agricultural productivity, this land was historically the heart of the Tallgrass Prairie ecosystem. The deep, black topsoil that drives the state’s economy is the biological legacy of millennia of deep-rooted prairie grasses and forbs dying and regenerating. While less than 0.1% of the original prairie remains, large-scale restoration projects like the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge are recreating the complex interaction between grazing bison, fire, and native flora, offering a window into the landscape that greeted early settlers.

In the northeast corner, the state breaks from its rolling plains reputation in the Paleozoic Plateau, commonly known as the Driftless Area. Like its counterparts in Wisconsin and Minnesota, this region was bypassed by the last glaciers. The result is a rugged, deeply dissected landscape of limestone bluffs, cold-water trout streams, and algific talus slopes. These north-facing, rocky slopes vent cold air from underground ice caves, maintaining a microclimate that supports Ice Age relict species, such as the Iowa Pleistocene Snail and Northern Monkshood, which would otherwise be found much further north.

To the west, the Loess Hills rise abruptly from the Missouri River floodplain. These unique formations are composed of windblown glacial silt (loess) deposited at the end of the last Ice Age. Iowa’s Loess Hills are globally significant; the only other place on Earth with loess deposits of this depth is Shaanxi, China. The steep, dry slopes here support a Xeric Prairie community that includes plants typically found in the Great Plains further west, such as Yucca and Skeletonweed, thriving in the well-drained, unstable soil.

The Prairie Pothole Region in north-central Iowa—the “Des Moines Lobe”—is the footprint of the most recent glacial advance. Historically a vast network of wetlands and marshes, this area was the primary breeding ground for millions of waterfowl. Today, restoration efforts are focused on plugging drainage tiles to re-flood these basins, bringing back the wetland biodiversity that filters water and prevents downstream flooding.