Hummingbirds of South Dakota

Located on the edge of the tallgrass prairie at South Dakota State University in Brookings, McCrory Gardens is the region's only accredited botanical garden, encompassing 25 acres of formal gardens and a 45-acre state arboretum. The gardens plant over 41,000 flowers, trees, and shrubs annually and maintain extensive research trial plots. The perennial garden is a highlight, with bee balm, penstemons, and native prairie species creating rich mid-summer nectar sources. McCrory is the primary botanical destination in the eastern Dakotas.

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Crazy Horse Memorial is a world-famous ongoing mountain carving in the Black Hills of South Dakota, begun in 1948 to honor Oglala Lakota leader Crazy Horse. The 400-acre grounds include two museums, extensive surrounding Black Hills landscape with ponderosa pine forests, rocky slopes, and native meadow clearings. The Black Hills ecosystem supports a rich diversity of wildflowers including penstemon, columbine, and scarlet trumpet plants that attract Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at the western edge of their range — making this one of the westernmost reliable hummingbird sites in South Dakota, where Broad-tailed Hummingbird is also occasionally reported.

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The Great Plains Zoo is a 45-acre accredited zoo in Sioux Falls operated by the Zoological Society of Sioux Falls, home to animals representing all seven continents. The landscaped grounds feature ornamental and native plantings throughout, combined with the Big Sioux River riparian corridor immediately adjacent — providing summer habitat for Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. The zoo also operates the Butterfly House & Aquarium at a separate campus.

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A 52-acre National Register of Historic Places park along Covell Lake in Sioux Falls, Terrace Park is one of South Dakota's most beloved public green spaces. Founded in 1916 and listed on the National Register as Terrace Park and Japanese Gardens in 2015, the park features dramatic quartzite-lined terraces descending 30 feet to the lakeshore, a formal Japanese garden with pagodas, exotic trees, and perennial plantings. The Japanese garden's layered plantings combined with native plants along Covell Lake's shoreline create nectar resources that attract Ruby-throated Hummingbirds during the summer season.

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