Birding Guide to Southwest Louisiana

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GoBirding!

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In a typical year, more than 400 different species can be spotted in this area, a true birders’ paradise! Southwest Louisiana, including Calcasieu and Cameron parishes, with its prairies, marshes and coastal habitats, attracts many migratory birds from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Birds can be seen year round; however, fall, winter and spring are the best seasons for birding in Southwest Louisiana.

American Avocet

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Ruddy Turnstone

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Sandhill Crane

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Osprey

Neotropic Cormorant

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Eastern Towhee

Semipalmated Plover

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Greater Yellowlegs

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Laughing Gull

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Royal Tern

Roseate Spoonbill

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For more information, please check out the websites listed below or visit the bureau:

Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana Convention & Visitors Bureau 1205 N. Lakeshore Drive Lake Charles, LA 70601 337-436-9588 • 800-456-7952 VisitLakeCharles.org/Birds

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Swainson’s Thrush

Sora Rail

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Dickcissel

Killdeer

Snowy Egret

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Black Skimmer

Great Blue Heron

Red-tailed Hawk

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Black-necked Stilt

Crested Caracara

Hooded Warbler

Reddish Egret

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Carolina Wren

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Herring Gull

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Eastern Meadowlark

Eastern Kingbird

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Blue-winged Warbler

Black Tern

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Black-bellied Plover

Belted Kingfisher

Green Heron

Least Tern

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Rain gear is advisable with the unpredictable Southwest Louisiana weather in the spring and winter months. Since summers can be extremely hot and humid, water, sunscreen and insect repellent are items that should be carried when traversing into Louisiana’s remote areas.

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a n a i s i u o L t s e w h t Sou

See how many you can find and check off the list.

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VisitCameronParish.org

CreoleNatureTrail.org

CALCASIEU PARISH CAMERON PARISH Tricolored Heron

Vermilion Flycatcher

White-eyed Vireo

White-faced Ibis

Willet

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Yellow-throated Vireo

337.436.9588 • 800.456.7952


WATERFOWL Neotropical migrants (such

as warblers, vireos and flycatchers) are most often seen in the spring and fall in coastal woodlands.

Shore-line birds like

plovers, willets and terns are typically seen year round on area beaches.

Wading birds,

such as ibises, spoonbills, herons and egrets are seen year round in marshes.

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�-Chenier loop

� -Hackberry, LA

�7-Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge

• Tidal marshes with bayous, open water and chenier ridges • Extensive brackish marsh, pools, coastal woodlands • Price Lake Road nature drive

• Some scrub, some open water

American Coot

American White Pelican

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American Wigeon

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� -Sabine National Wildlife Refuge

�2-Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

• Tidal marshes interspersed with bayous and open water, live oak and mulberry groves • Wetland Walkway (accessible) • Blue Goose Trail

• Fresh and brackish marshes with scrub/tree lined uplands • Pintail Wildlife Drive and Boardwalk (accessible)

�-Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge

�-Peveto Woods Migratory Bird Sanctuary

Blue-winged Teal

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• Fresh and brackish marshes, pools • Lacassine Pool Wildlife Drive

• Coastal woodland, freshwater pool, beach, open gulf

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� -Cameron Jetties

� -Sam Houston Jones State Park

• Open Gulf, rock jetties, some salt marsh • Cameron Jetties Fishing Pier and observation tower

Brown Pelican

• Mixed pine-hardwood, bottomland hardwood and cypress tupelo swamp

� -Rutherford Beach

Common Gallinule

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• Beaches, open gulf, salt marsh

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CALCASIEU PARISH

Fulvous Whistling-Duck

LA 378

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LAKE CHARLES

Niblett’s Bluff Park

TEXAS

Welsh

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Jennings LA 99

Greater White-fronted Goose

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LA 14

Holmwood

Orange

LA 26

Illinois Plant Road Lacassine Pool

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Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge

�Hackberry CAMERON PARISH

Lesser Scaup

Green-winged Teal

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S AB IN E LAKE

Sabine National Wildlife Refuge

C A L C A S IE U LAKE

PR 20 1

Holly Beach

Peveto Woods Migratory Bird Sanctuary

Mottled Duck

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Northern Pintail

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10 Miles

5 0 5 10 Kilometers

Pied-billed Grebe

Snow Goose

Cameron Jetties

LA 1143

GRAND LAKE

(Little Chen ier Ro ad) Creole Hw y.

PR 217

Creole Cameron

LA 14

Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

PR 202

Hawks and ospreyS

appear mostly in the fall and winter, soaring or on overhead power lines and poles.

�1-Niblett’s Bluff Park • Loblolly pines, riverfront

Waterfowl

are more plentiful in the fall and winter, usually in fields and marshes.

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Great Birding Spots

Rutherford Beach

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Grand Chenier

M e x BIRDING AREAS

SWAMP & FORESTED WETLANDS COASTAL MARSHES

WHITE LAKE

Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge

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