Find Nature In Alabama

Additional Wildlife of Alabama

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 Yellowhammer State.

Birds (Avifauna) The Northern Flicker (Yellowhammer) is the state bird, a woodpecker that feeds on the ground on ants rather than pecking wood. The coastal marshes are a stronghold for the Swallow-tailed Kite, which uses the tall cypress trees for nesting. In the piney woods, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker is the focus of intense management; because it nests in living pine trees, it requires old-growth timber infected with red heart fungus to soften the wood, a resource that is scarce in modern forests.

Mammals The Alabama Beach Mouse is a federally endangered subspecies found only on the dune systems of the Gulf Coast. These tiny, pale mice are critical for dune health, burying seeds of sea oats that stabilize the sand against hurricanes. The American Black Bear has a unique, isolated population in the Mobile River Delta, genetically distinct from the bears recently recolonizing North Alabama from Georgia. The West Indian Manatee is becoming a more frequent seasonal visitor to Mobile Bay, migrating north from Florida during the summer.

Insects Alabama is home to the Eastern Hercules Beetle, one of the largest insects in the United States. Males sport massive horns used for wrestling rivals over mates. The aquatic insect diversity is staggering; the sheer number of Caddisfly and Stonefly species in the Cahaba River is a testament to the evolutionary age of the watershed. The Monarch Butterfly passes through the state in significant numbers, utilizing the coastal dunes as a final fueling stop before crossing the Gulf of Mexico.

Plants The Cahaba Lily (Hymenocallis coronaria) is the botanical icon of the state. This aquatic amaryllis blooms only in shoals of swift-flowing water in May, opening large, white, spider-like flowers that are pollinated by sphinx moths at night. The White-topped Pitcher Plant dominates the coastal bogs, standing nearly three feet tall with bright white hoods that attract insects. Kudzu, while an invasive vine that “ate the South,” is a defining feature of the disturbed landscape, shrouding trees and power lines in a monoculture of green.

Fungi The humid, subtropical climate of Alabama supports a massive diversity of fungi. Chanterelles are exceptionally common in the summer hardwood forests, often growing in troops of hundreds. The Lion’s Mane mushroom is frequently found on dying oaks in the winter. A unique local fungus is the Green-spored Parasol (Chlorophyllum molybdites), which is the most common cause of mushroom poisoning in the state; it looks identical to edible parasols but has a distinct green spore print.

Alabama Biodiversity Profile

Alabama is the aquatic engine of North America. Often overlooked in popular conservation narratives, it historically ranks first in the nation for freshwater diversity, earning it the title “America’s Amazon.” The state’s biological identity is forged by its river systems—the Mobile, Tennessee, Cahaba, and Coosa—which drain a massive, geologically diverse basin into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mobile-Tensaw Delta is the crown jewel of this system. Just north of Mobile Bay, this vast wetland complex of bottomland hardwoods, cypress-tupelo swamps, and sawgrass marshes covers over 200,000 acres. It serves as a biological mixing bowl where temperate and subtropical species coexist, supporting a density of turtles, fish, and mussels unrivaled anywhere else on the continent.

In the northeastern corner, the state rises into the Cumberland Plateau. Here, the landscape is defined by sandstone caps and deep limestone canyons, most notably Little River Canyon, one of the deepest gorges east of the Mississippi. This rugged topography creates cool, moist microclimates that allow species typically found in the Appalachians to persist deep into the South. The isolation of these canyon streams has driven high levels of endemism, particularly among aquatic salamanders and crayfish.

To the south lies the East Gulf Coastal Plain, a region historically dominated by the Longleaf Pine ecosystem. While much of this has been lost to timber plantations, the remaining tracts are biodiversity hotspots. The sandy, acidic soils here are poor in nutrients, leading to the evolution of the highest concentration of carnivorous plants in the United States. In the wet pine savannas (bogs), pitcher plants create vast, colorful fields that function as pitfall traps for insects, turning the nutrient limitation of the soil into a competitive advantage.

Separating the uplands from the lowlands is the Fall Line Hills. This geological boundary is a transition zone of high turbulence and oxygenation in the rivers. It is here that the Cahaba River flows, the longest free-flowing river in the state. The Cahaba is a global hotspot for freshwater biodiversity, hosting more fish species per mile than any other river of its size in North America.