South Dakota: Black Hills and Badlands

Rising steeply from the Great Plains, the Black Hills—Pahá Sápa to the Lakota—form a remarkable island of montane habitat where the ranges of eastern, western, northern, and southern birds overlap in surprising ways. Their pine-scented slopes, red shale canyons, granite peaks, and meadow-filled valleys harbor a diversity rarely matched elsewhere in the interior West. Here, Blue Jays from the east mingle with Canada Jays from the Rockies and Pinyon Jays from the Southwest. Within only a few miles, American Three-toed, Red-headed, and Lewis’s woodpeckers all find suitable nesting habitat, while canyon streams shelter American Dippers, Gray Catbirds, and both Orchard and Bullock’s orioles.

The surrounding prairies add an entirely different dimension. Vast mixed-grass expanses support Burrowing and Short-eared owls, Prairie Falcons, Ferruginous Hawks, Swainson’s Hawks, and a rich mix of sparrows and longspurs. Raptors scan from buttes and fencelines, while grassland mammals—from Pronghorn to Black-tailed Prairie Dogs—animate the wide-open spaces.

A highlight of the tour is our visit to Badlands National Park, a spectacular wilderness of jagged buttes, colorful spires, and eroded canyons. This is the realm of Rock Wrens, Say’s Phoebes, and open-country specialists, set against a paleontological landscape famous for its Miocene fossil beds. The chance to watch scientists at work only enriches the experience.

Throughout the region, mammals are a constant delight. Custer State Park’s thriving herds of American Bison, Mule Deer, and Pronghorn make every drive memorable, and June brings hillsides alive with blooming harebells, prairie roses, and sego lilies. With good accommodations, excellent food, and gentle walks, this tour blends superb birding, iconic wildlife, and sublime scenery in one of North America’s most compelling natural crossroads.

The tour spans a uniquely diverse ecological crossroads in western South Dakota. In the Black Hills, ponderosa pine and spruce forests drape granite ridges and canyon walls, while open meadows and riparian corridors host species such as Pygmy Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee, and Wood Thrush. Adjacent mixed-grass prairies support Burrowing Owls, Prairie Falcons, and Chestnut-collared Longspurs, alongside large mammals like bison, pronghorn, and elk. Badlands National Park adds dramatic eroded buttes, coulees, and wide-open grasslands where Rock Wrens, Say’s Phoebes, and prairie specialists thrive. Small wetlands and prairie potholes punctuate the landscape, drawing waterfowl and shorebirds. This blend of forest, prairie, and rugged badlands creates one of the most biologically rich birding regions on the northern plains.