Best Spring Birding Spots Along the Mississippi Flyway: A South-to-North Guide

The Mississippi Flyway is a migration route along the Mississippi, Missouri and lower Ohio rivers that birds take each spring and fall to make their way between their breeding grounds in Canada and their winter homes in the Gulf of Mexico and Central and South America.

The Great River Road is a perfect place for avid and amateur birdwatchers alike, as the Mississippi River Flyway is the migration route followed by 40 percent of all waterfowl and shorebirds in North America. But the flyway is not just a waterfowl highway. It is the interior continent's answer to the Atlantic coast flyway: a ribbon of river forest, floodplain marsh, and bottomland hardwood that funnels hundreds of millions of birds from the Gulf of Mexico to the boreal forests of Canada every spring, and gives birders a 3,000-kilometer corridor of extraordinary destinations to explore.

This guide organizes those destinations as a trip-planning resource, traveling south to north through the season, from the Louisiana bayous of March through the Minnesota bluffs of May. The thread connecting every stop is the Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea), the flyway's signature spring species, which follows the floodplain forest north as the season advances and announces its presence with a loud, ringing song from every stand of flooded timber it encounters.

The Flyway as a Spring Journey

The Mississippi Flyway migration does not happen all at once. It advances north at roughly the same pace as the spring isotherms, the lines of equal daily temperature that move up the continent at approximately 35 to 50 kilometers per day through April and May. A birder who starts in Louisiana in early April and works north through Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota through May is essentially traveling alongside the migration front, experiencing the peak window at each latitude in sequence.

Once in the air, these birds can fly around 200 miles per night before stopping to rest and recharge for a few days. Just like many of us humans have memorized landmarks that chart the route between our homes and certain familiar places, birds use the Mississippi River as a guide to help them travel south to north. It also comes with a valuable added bonus: reliable habitat to stop and rest in. Despite the massive changes the river floodplain has undergone as cities have developed around it, there's still water, tributaries, and a ribbon of forest alongside it in many places that make it an attractive place to rest and refuel.

Stop 1: Jean Lafitte National Historical Park, Louisiana (March to early April)

In Louisiana, visit Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, outside of New Orleans. Here, in the Barataria Preserve, you'll find more than 200 species of birds, from herons, egrets and ibis to Prothonotary Warblers and Painted Buntings (Passerina ciris). The scenery is breathtaking here with canals, forests and swamps.

Jean Lafitte is the southern gateway to the flyway and one of the most immersive birding environments in North America. The Barataria Preserve is a 23,000-acre complex of bayous, swamps, bottomland hardwood forest, and marsh, accessible by a network of boardwalks and trails. In March and early April, birds that have been wintering in Central and South America begin arriving here before pushing further north. The Prothonotary Warbler breeding population is present from early April, glowing gold from the willows and buttonbush over the dark swamp water.

The boardwalk trail through the swamp forest produces intimate encounters with Louisiana Waterthrush (Parkesia motacilla), Northern Parula (Setophaga americana), Yellow-throated Warbler (Setophaga dominica), and both kingfisher species. Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) nest boxes line the canals. American Alligators are present year-round and add a dimension to the birding experience that no other flyway destination can match.

Stop 2: White River National Wildlife Refuge, Arkansas (Late March to mid-April)

The White River National Wildlife Refuge encompasses 160,000 acres of bottomland hardwood forest in eastern Arkansas, one of the largest remaining examples of the habitat type that once covered the entire lower Mississippi floodplain. Over 300 lakes and ponds, the Bottomland Hardwood Forest and the White River make an ideal home for migrating birds. You'll see Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), Wood Ducks, Prothonotary Warblers and many kinds of birds native to the south.

Species of particular note in late March and April: Swallow-tailed Kite (Elanoides forficatus) arriving from South America, Mississippi Kite (Ictinia mississippiensis), Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga) in the cypress swamps, and the first wave of warbler migrants working through the flooded forest at eye level.

Stop 3: Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tennessee (Early to mid-April)

Located in the northwest corner of Tennessee, Reelfoot Lake was created by a series of earthquakes in the early 1800s and today is a magnificent wildlife viewing and birding location. You'll find many varieties of shore and wading birds here and white pelicans and eagles pay seasonal visits to the park.

Reelfoot Lake is one of the least-known extraordinary birding sites on the entire flyway. Created by the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812, which temporarily reversed the flow of the Mississippi River and flooded 13,000 acres of cypress forest, the lake is a shallow, cypress-studded wilderness of singular character. The standing dead cypress trees that line the shore produce a habitat structure that concentrates nesting and migrating birds in a way that engineered wetlands never replicate.

American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) stage at Reelfoot in large numbers during April, using the shallow lake as a foraging base before continuing north. Bald Eagles nest here in significant numbers. In spring, as the migrants arrive, the bird diversity in a single morning's paddling or walking the cypress-lined shores is genuinely startling.

Stop 4: The Audubon Center at Riverlands, Missouri (April)

The Audubon Center at Riverlands, located just north of St. Louis at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, gives birders a window-level view of one of the most important confluence points on the flyway. Hundreds of white pelicans wheel and soar above the river here in spring, and the Center maintains staffed spotting scopes pointed at the river and the adjacent Teal Pond.

The two great rivers meeting here create a diversity of water conditions, currents, and eddies that concentrates fish and therefore concentrates the birds that eat them: pelicans, eagles, mergansers, cormorants, and in the right conditions, unusual gulls and terns displaced from their normal routes. The volunteer naturalists on duty are among the most knowledgeable flyway observers available to the public.

Stop 5: Alma, Wisconsin and the White Pelican Spectacle (Late March to April)

Hundreds of pelicans congregate in a Mississippi River backwater in Alma, Wisconsin. This is an understated description of one of the most visually dramatic spring spectacles available anywhere in the interior United States.

The town of Alma sits on a narrow strip of land between the Mississippi bluffs and the river, at Pool 4 of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. In late March and April, American White Pelicans staging on their way north from Gulf Coast wintering grounds congregate in the river backwaters here in numbers that can exceed a thousand birds. The pelicans fish cooperatively, forming semicircular lines that herd fish toward shallow water, then diving simultaneously in coordinated groups. Watching hundreds of pelicans fishing cooperatively from the observation platform above Alma, with the Mississippi bluffs rising behind them and a Bald Eagle drifting overhead, is one of the genuinely spectacular free wildlife experiences available anywhere in North America.

Stop 6: Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge (April to May)

Located along the Mississippi Flyway, the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge is one of the best places around to see residential and migratory birds throughout the seasons. Over 290 species of birds migrate through the refuge across its 240,000 acre stretch, utilizing the bottomland forest, marshland, river, and prairie ecosystems on their journeys. April and May offer the best glimpses of songbirds that stopover or nest in the floodplain forest and marshes on their way back north from the tropics.

Lake Onalaska, Wisconsin: The lake is actually a pool of the Mississippi River, and the river's widest spot. Bald Eagles are frequent visitors, as are Tundra Swans (Cygnus columbianus), and if you're lucky you'll catch the migration of Canvasback Ducks: there have been reports of 75,000 to 100,000 of them using Lake Onalaska as a springtime staging area, approximately one third of their North American population.

Pikes Peak State Park, Iowa: Here you can make the trek up the 500-foot bluff for views of where the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers meet. You'll find plenty of songbirds here: Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis), warblers, catbirds, Pileated Woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus), and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris). The bluff viewpoint gives you a hawk watch angle over the river valley that is productive for raptors in April and May.

Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge, Wisconsin: One of the most intact bottomland forest habitats on the upper flyway. The Kiep's Island trail through the floodplain forest produces Prothonotary Warblers in breeding numbers in May, along with Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina), Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus), and the full suite of floodplain forest migrants.

Stop 7: The Driftless Area and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin (May)

The Wisconsin town of Prairie du Chien sits above the many islands and river channels of the Upper Mississippi River National Fish and Wildlife Refuge that's at the center of the Driftless Area. The refuge encompasses the largest floodplain habitat in the lower US and serves as one of the most important stopovers for migrating birds on the Mississippi Flyway. More than 300 bird species have been documented on the refuge.

The Driftless Area, the unglaciated region of southwest Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota, northeast Iowa, and northwest Illinois, is the most topographically complex section of the flyway. The deep valleys, wooded bluffs, and river backwaters create a mosaic of habitats that supports both the floodplain forest species following the river and the upland forest species using the bluff systems. In May, when the Prothonotary Warbler and Louisiana Waterthrush are singing from the flooded bottomland below and the Cerulean Warbler (Setophaga cerulea) is singing from the mature oak canopy above, the Driftless Area birding is as diverse as any comparable area in the interior US.

Stop 8: Frontenac State Park and the Twin Cities, Minnesota (May)

As neotropical migrants follow the river north, warblers such as Northern Parulas and Ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla) use the oak forests along the rugged bluffs for cover and food. Tundra Swans and American White Pelicans use the river as a food source as they make their passage to the subarctic.

Frontenac State Park, between Lake Pepin and the Mississippi bluffs in southeastern Minnesota, produces an extraordinary species list in early to mid-May. Lake Pepin itself, a natural lake formed where the Chippewa River delta backs up the Mississippi, is a staging area for waterfowl and a reliable location for Common Loon (Gavia immer) in spring.

The Twin Cities metro area harbors exceptional spring birding at Crosby Farm Regional Park and Houlton Conservation Area, where the Mississippi floodplain forest is protected within the urban matrix. The birding community maintains eBird coverage of the entire metro region that makes real-time information readily accessible.

The Prothonotary Warbler: The Flyway's Signature Spring Species

The Prothonotary Warbler, a bright yellow songbird named for the yellow robes worn by papal clerks in the Roman Catholic church, enjoys big, old forests surrounded by floodwaters. In southeast Minnesota and southwest Wisconsin they're abundant along the Mississippi, but birders elsewhere in those states will rarely see them.

The male is among the most visually striking warblers in North America: entirely golden yellow with blue-grey wings, singing from a low willow branch above standing water. Finding a singing male Prothonotary Warbler in flooded cypress or willow forest, reflected in still dark water, is one of the defining experiences of a Mississippi Flyway spring trip.

The Phenological Mismatch: Why These Sites Matter

At Audubon, there's concern about what scientists call phenological mismatch. Birds are genetically cued to leave the south when the weather warms, and they arrive in the north when insects emerge and trees bud. But climate change is throwing off the timing of those events. As winters and springs warm up, data is showing birds are arriving a little sooner than they were historically. The danger is that a spring cold snap could kill off the tree buds and insects that the birds need to eat, eventually causing them to die.

The river's floodplain forests are also struggling. Between 1891 and 1989, the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers lost nearly half of their floodplain forest cover due to urban and agricultural land use, as well as changes to the way the water flowed after locks and dams were installed in the 1930s.

Every birder who visits the Mississippi Flyway sites in this guide is bearing witness to a conservation system under pressure. The birds are adapting. The habitat is shrinking. The timing mismatches are measurable. A spring trip along the flyway is not just a birding experience. It is contact with a biological system of continental significance that is changing in ways that will determine the future of North American migration.

Planning Your Flyway Trip

The logistics of a south-to-north flyway trip reward flexibility. Rather than planning fixed dates months in advance, use BirdCast to identify when the migration front is at each latitude and adjust your itinerary accordingly. The flyway's sites do not peak simultaneously: Louisiana peaks in early April, Tennessee and Arkansas in mid-April, Missouri and Illinois in late April, Wisconsin in early May, and Minnesota in the second week of May.

A two-week trip beginning in Louisiana in the first week of April and ending in Minnesota around May 10 positions you at or near the peak window at each stop. The route follows US-61 and the Great River Road for much of its length, one of the most scenic drives in North America.

For real-time migration intensity and conditions at each stop, see our guide on how to use BirdCast for spring birding.

The Short Version

Spring is a particularly good time to catch migrating birds, as songbirds like warblers, gnatcatchers, and vireos head back north after the winter and swallows, swifts, and migratory woodpeckers return to the bluffs and forests along the Mississippi River. Start at Jean Lafitte in Louisiana in early April. Work north through White River NWR, Reelfoot Lake, and Riverlands. Watch the pelican spectacle at Alma in late April. Spend early May in the Upper Mississippi NWR floodplain forest. Finish in the Driftless Area and Twin Cities bluffs in the second week of May.

The Prothonotary Warbler will be singing at every stop. The river will be there. The migration will be moving north at the same pace you are. It is one of the great spring journeys available to a birder in North America.