Find Nature In Colorado

Additional Wildlife of Colorado

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 Centennial State.

Birds (Avifauna) The Lark Bunting is the state bird, a migratory sparrow of the eastern plains where the male performs a spectacular aerial flight song. In the high alpine, the White-tailed Ptarmigan is the champion of camouflage, turning pure white in winter to match the snow and mottled granite-grey in summer. The Brown-capped Rosy-Finch is a near-endemic that breeds almost exclusively on the highest peaks of Colorado, nesting in cliffs above the treeline.

Mammals The American Pika is the ecological barometer of the state. These small relatives of rabbits live in the talus slopes of the high mountains. They do not hibernate; instead, they spend the summer “haying”—harvesting grasses and drying them on rocks to store for winter. Because they cannot survive temperatures above 78°F, they are rapidly moving upslope as the climate warms. The Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep is the state mammal, iconic for its ability to navigate the vertical rock faces of canyons like the Arkansas River gorge.

Insects The Miller Moth (Army Cutworm Moth) migration is a massive annual event. Millions of these moths migrate from the plains to the mountains in early summer. They are the primary calorie source for Grizzly and Black Bears, who overturn rocks in the high alpine to eat them by the thousands (consuming up to 40,000 moths a day). The Uncompahgre Fritillary is a critically endangered butterfly found only in a few patches of alpine willow thickets in the San Juan Mountains.

Plants The Colorado Blue Spruce is the state tree, found along mountain streams, recognizable by its stiff, silver-blue needles. The Rocky Mountain Columbine is the state flower; its complex spur shape co-evolved with long-tongued hawk moths and hummingbirds. A defining feature of the mountains is the Quaking Aspen. The largest living organism in the state (and likely the world, rivaling the Oregon fungus) is an Aspen clone; entire hillsides turning gold in September are often a single genetic individual connected by roots.

Fungi Colorado’s “monsoon season” (late summer rains) triggers one of the best King Bolete (Boletus rubriceps) flushes in the country. These massive, reddish-capped porcini mushrooms appear in the high-elevation spruce-fir forests in August. The Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) is also iconic here, growing in symbiotic association with Lodgepole Pines, its red-and-white spotted cap looking like a fairytale illustration against the dark forest floor.

Colorado Biodiversity Profile

Colorado is known as the “Mother of Rivers” and the “Roof of North America.” Biologically, it is defined by extreme vertical relief. The eastern third of the state is the High Plains, a shortgrass prairie ecosystem that sits in the rain shadow of the mountains. This was historically the domain of the Bison and now supports swift fox and mountain plovers.

Rising abruptly from the plains is the Front Range, marking the start of the Southern Rocky Mountains. This collision creates a unique “foothills” transition zone where scrub oak and mountain mahogany give way to Ponderosa Pine. Above this lies the Subalpine Zone, a deep winter snow belt of Engelmann Spruce and Subalpine Fir that serves as the “water tower” for the southwestern United States.

The defining ecological feature, however, is the Alpine Tundra. Colorado has more land area above 10,000 feet than any other state. In this treeless zone, life operates under arctic conditions. Plants here are miniatures, “cushion plants” that hug the ground to avoid the wind, and the growing season lasts only 6 to 12 weeks.

To the west of the Continental Divide lies the Western Slope, a landscape of sandstone mesas, canyons, and the headwaters of the Colorado River. This region is drier and warmer, characterized by Pinyon-Juniper woodlands and sagebrush vastness that rivals Wyoming’s. Uniquely, the San Luis Valley in the south is a massive high-altitude desert basin containing the Great Sand Dunes, the tallest dunes in North America, which trap water to create ephemeral wetlands hosting rare endemic insects.