Birding Hotspots / LeFleur’s Bluff State Park (LBSP) 

LeFleur’s Bluff State Park (LBSP)
3315 Lakeland Terrace
Jackson, MS 39216
Phone: 601 987 3923

LeFleur’s Bluff State Park is a public recreation area located on the banks of the Pearl River off Interstate 55 within the city limits of Jackson, Mississippi. The state park is a designated IBA (Important Bird Area) by National Audubon and is home to a 50-acre lake, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, and the Mississippi Children’s Museum. The park encompasses 492 acres of Pearl River floodplain and adjacent uplands. Two and a half miles of nature trails, boardwalks and viewing platforms are maintained for wildlife viewing.  Oxbow lakes and tupelo-cypress swamps occupy depressions in the floodplain while oak, elm, ash, and other trees form a mixed bottomland hardwood forest.  Rising over 100 feet above the floodplain is a bluff which supports a rare and distinctive calcareous forest characterized by such species as tulip tree, Shumard oak, and white ash.  Less extensive communities include riverfront pioneer forest, shrub wetland, marshes, and the artificial grassland of the park’s golf course. 

This diversity of habitats supports an exceptional array of bird life for an urban park with 211 species recorded, with 75 species known to breed within the park, including such noteworthy species as Wood Duck, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Mississippi Kite, Barred Owl, Acadian Flycatcher, Wood Thrush, Summer Tanager, and Prothonotary, Kentucky and Hooded Warblers.  Spring and fall bring waves of warblers and other Neotropical migrants, while a long list of waterfowl species have paid visits to the park’s waterbodies.  Storks, ibises, and even Roseate Spoonbills wander here after the breeding season. LBSP Bird Checklist, 2023 can be found on the Jackson Audubon website.   

Jackson Audubon maintains a Prothonotary Warbler Nest Box Trail and conducts First Saturday Family Birds Walks each month (except January, July & August) in the park starting at the Mayes Lake parking lot.

LINK: LBSP Bird Checklist, 2023