Block Island National Wildlife Refuge - List of Representative Species of Wildlife and Plants
For additional lists of refuge species, click on
Appendix A: Trust Resources and Other Species and Habitats of Management Concern from the plans (CCPs) for our refuges.
Vegetation
The following plants are a small subset of the plants you will find on this refuge:
- beach grass (Ammophila brevigulata)
- poison ivy (Rhus radicans)
- bayberry (Myrica pennsylvanica)
- wild rose (Rosa rugosa)
- beach plum (Prunus maritima)
- northern arrowwood (Viburnum recognitum)
- pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)
- Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)
- Bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica)
- Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii)
Invasive Species:
- Common Reed (Phragmites australis)
- Asiatic Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)
For more information on invasive species and control efforts on our refuges, please click on
Invasive Species: Partnering with Landowners to Control the Spread of Invasive Plants on the Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
Amphibians
Some of the amphibians you might see are these:
- Spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer)
- American Green Frog (Rana clamitans)
- Red-spotted newt (Notophthalumus v. viridescens)
Reptiles
The following are examples of what you might see on our refuge:
- common snapping turtle (Chelydra s. serpentina)
- spotted turtle (Clemmys guttata)
- eastern painted turtle (Chrysemys p. picta)
- northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon)
- eastern garter snake (Thamnophis s. sirtalis)
- northern brown snake (Storeria d. dekayi)
- diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin)
Birds
There are at least 95 species of songbirds, 70 species of neotropical migrants and 40 species of shorebirds, including:
- Piping plover (Charadrius melodus)
- black-crowned night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) (endangered RI)
- great egrets (Casmerodius albus) (endangered RI)
- snowy egrets (Egretta thula) (endangered RI)
- yellow-crowned night-herons (Nycticorax violacea) (endangered RI)
- American oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus) (endangered RI)
- Sea beach knotweed (Polygonum glaucum) (endangered RI)
- northern harriers (Circus cyaneus) (endangered RI)
- Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
For additional information about the birds on our refuges, please go to our
Birding Resources and
Plover Program pages in the Quick Links drop-down menu above.
Mammals
Here are some examples of the mammals you might see:
- Feral cats (Felis catus)
- Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina)
- Grey seal (Halichoerus grypus)
- Harp seal (Phoca groenlandica)
- Hooded Seal (Cystophora cristata)
- Block Island meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus provectus) (endemic)
- whitefooted mouse (Peromyscus leucopus)
- muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus)
- house mouse (Mus musculus)
- Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus)
- White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Invertebrates
Among many other species, this critically endangered species occurs on the refuge:
- American Burying Beetle (Nicrophorus americanus)
