North Dakota Nature Guide: February 2026
Data updated: August 2026Sources & method · Corrections
February is still deep winter on the Northern Plains, but the light is returning fast and the first faint stirrings of the year begin. Horned larks sing over snow-crusted fields, great horned owls are already on eggs, and the prairie waits under its longest stretch of clear, brutally cold, star-bright nights.
Week by week in February
January 29 – February 4
- Great horned owls begin hooting and courting on mild evenings, the earliest nesters in the state, claiming old hawk nests in the river woods.
- Start onions and leeks under lights late in the month — the slowest crops need this head start to mature in the short prairie season.
- The brilliant winter hexagon of bright stars wheels across the southern sky; February's long, cold nights are prime for deep-sky viewing.
February 5–11
- Horned larks — often the first migrants — appear along plowed roadsides, the males beginning their tinkling flight song over the snow.
- Orion rides due south with Sirius blazing below; the dark skies of the Sheyenne National Grassland deliver Milky Way views few states can match.
- Look for thin late-winter syrup tapped from bottomland boxelder and silver maple beginning to appear at indoor markets.
February 12–18
- Great horned owls are now on eggs in old nests in the cottonwood bottoms, incubating through subzero nights.
- Prune dormant apple and plum trees on a mild day before the sap rises, and finalize warm-season seed orders for March starting.
- On the first warm days, sap begins to move in the bottomland boxelders and silver maples of the river corridors.
February 19–25
- In a late-month thaw, the very first returning Canada geese may push north to any patch of open water — the leading edge of spring migration.
- North Dakota's far-north latitude makes February one of the better Lower-48 months for the aurora borealis on active nights.
- Keep mulch and snow on perennials and fall garlic — late-February freeze-thaw, not steady cold, is what heaves and kills prairie plants.
Birds This Month
February is the turn of the birding year in North Dakota even while the snow holds. Horned larks — often the first migrants — appear along plowed roadsides and bare field edges, the males beginning their tinkling flight song over the white country. Great horned owls are already nesting, hooting on mild evenings and incubating eggs in old hawk and squirrel nests in the shelterbelts and river woods. Feeders stay busy with chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, and house finches, and an irruption winter still brings redpolls, pine grosbeaks, and Bohemian waxwings.
The open-country raptors of winter are still here: scan section roads and fence lines for rough-legged hawks, lingering snowy owls, and northern shrikes, and watch the open Missouri tailwater below Garrison Dam for bald eagles and rafts of common goldeneye. Late in the month, in a warm spell, the very first returning Canada geese may push north to any patch of open water, the leading edge of the great spring waterfowl migration to come.
This month's tip: listen at dusk for the deep, paired hoots of great horned owls — February is their courtship and nesting peak, and a still, cold evening carries the sound far across the prairie.
What's Blooming
The prairie is still locked in snow and nothing blooms outdoors in a North Dakota February, but the light is strengthening noticeably and the days lengthen fast. The dormant landscape still carries its winter color — the red canes of red-osier dogwood in the wet draws, the persistent rose hips of the wild prairie rose along ditches, and the dark fruit of buffaloberry and juniper in the shelterbelts. The tan seed heads of purple coneflower and blazing star still stand above the drifts, feeding finches. The first true bloom of the year, the pasqueflower, is still tightly furled underground on the gravelly prairie hilltops. Indoors, this is the height of seed-starting prep, when prairie gardeners sow onions, leeks, and slow perennials under lights to gain a head start on the short northern season.
Garden This Month
February gardening in North Dakota is indoor work with one eye on spring. The beds are still frozen statewide, but the lengthening days make this the time to start the slowest crops under lights: onions, leeks, and celery sown now will be transplant-ready by the time the short prairie season opens in May. Prune dormant apple, plum, and chokecherry on a mild day before the sap rises, and finalize seed orders for the warm-season crops you'll start in March.
Outdoors, leave the snow banked over perennial beds, strawberries, and fall-planted garlic — it's still your best insulation against a midwinter Chinook's freeze-thaw, which kills more prairie plants than steady cold ever does. Brush heavy, wet snow off evergreens and arborvitae to prevent breakage, and resist any urge to uncover beds early; bare soil exposed to a February cold snap heaves perennials right out of the ground.
Zone 3b (north-central & Turtle Mountains): still fully dormant under snow. Start onions, leeks, and slow perennials indoors under lights late in the month, and keep planning your shelterbelt and windbreak plantings — the single most important structure for a far-north prairie garden.
Zone 4a (central & western valleys): beds remain frozen, but late February is the time to start onions, leeks, and celery indoors and to prune dormant apple and plum trees on a mild day before sap moves.
Zone 4b (southeast & the Red River Valley): the warmest corner of the state is still snow-covered, but it's the right window to start onions and leeks under lights, prune fruit trees, and check stored tubers and squash for any that have begun to soften.
What's at the Farmers Market
North Dakota's outdoor markets remain closed, but indoor winter markets in Fargo, Bismarck, and Grand Forks keep the durable harvest moving: Red River Valley storage potatoes, storage onions, carrots, beets, parsnips, cabbage, and winter squash, all cured in fall and still eating well. The state's signature pantry crops — hard red spring wheat flour, sunflower oil and seeds, and dry beans, of which North Dakota is a leading producer — are available year-round.
Look for North Dakota honey, jarred chokecherry and juneberry preserves, and the eggs and cold-hardy greens — kale, spinach, microgreens — coming from the heated hoop houses a few growers run through winter. Choose firm, unblemished roots and store them cool, dark, and humid; keep squash cool and dry; and warm crystallized honey gently rather than discarding it.
Night Sky This Month
February is one of North Dakota's best stargazing months — the air is dry and clear, the nights are still long, and the cold keeps the atmosphere steady. The dark skies of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the badlands are the headline destination, but the empty grasslands around the Sheyenne National Grassland and across the Drift Prairie deliver Milky Way views unimaginable in most states. Dress for serious cold and let your eyes adapt for twenty minutes.
The brilliant winter constellations are at their highest: Orion rides due south with Sirius blazing below him, the twins of Gemini stand high in the east, and the great hexagon of bright winter stars wheels across the southern sky. Toward dawn the spring stars rise. North Dakota's high latitude makes it one of the better Lower-48 states for the aurora borealis, which on geomagnetically active nights flares green and red along the northern horizon over the open prairie.
Exact planet positions shift year to year — the printable North Dakota night-sky guide gives this season's planet visibility and the best dark-sky pullouts for your region.
Butterflies & Pollinators
No butterflies fly over the snow-covered prairie in February, but the survivors are already positioned for the first warm days ahead. Mourning cloaks wait out the cold as adults, tucked behind the furrowed bark of plains cottonwoods and in woodpiles in the river corridors; their natural antifreeze means that the year's very first butterfly can be on the wing during a warm late-February or March thaw, flying over snow still on the ground. The grassland fritillaries — North Dakota's prized regal and Aphrodite fritillaries — are overwintering as minute caterpillars deep in the prairie thatch, waiting for spring to green their host violets. Compton tortoiseshells and eastern commas, where the wooded draws and the Turtle Mountains give them shelter, likewise overwinter as adults behind bark. February's lengthening light is the cue these dormant insects are tracking; the warmth is still weeks away on the open plains.
What to plant for them is in the North Dakota native plants guide
Trees This Month
North Dakota's trees stand dormant and bare through February, but the year is quietly beginning. On the first warm days, sap starts to move in the boxelders and silver maples of the river bottoms — a few prairie families still tap them and the river-bottom box elder for a thin late-winter syrup. The massive plains cottonwoods of the gallery forest remain leafless along the Missouri, Little Missouri, and Red rivers, their gray furrowed trunks the dominant winter tree of the state.
In the planted shelterbelts and farmstead groves, green ash, American elm, and Siberian elm stand bare beside the dark green of Rocky Mountain juniper, Colorado blue spruce, and ponderosa pine. On the badlands slopes the wind-twisted Rocky Mountain junipers hold their color, and young bur oaks in the Turtle Mountains still rattle their marcescent leaves in the wind — a sound that carries far across the cold, quiet prairie.
The North Dakota native plants guide covers what grows with them
Weather & Daylight
Across North Dakota, a typical February day averages a high near 24°F and a low near 5°F, with about 0.5 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Still deep-frozen, daytime highs stuck near 24F while nighttime cold near 5F keeps the ground locked in ice.
| Average high | 24°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 5°F |
| Precipitation | 0.5 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 7:45 CT |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 18:01 CT |
Figures are statewide averages over the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals; local conditions vary with elevation and distance from the coast. Sunrise and sunset are computed for a midstate point on the 15th (CT).
Next month's version of this page, by email
One short note when North Dakota's next month turns — what's arriving, blooming, and worth a night outside.
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The complete North Dakota birding, native-plant, and night-sky references — or the whole year, week by week, in one book.
Same month elsewhere: February in Ohio · February in Oklahoma · February in Oregon