Birding Trail Sites in Jacksonville

The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail lists 11 Duval County sites, ten in Jacksonville plus Jennings State Forest, which it shares with Clay County.

The Trail, a network of more than 500 premier wildlife viewing sites across Florida, names them on its Duval County page: Big Talbot Island State Park, Camp Milton Historic Preserve, Castaway Island Preserve, Cedar Point, Fort Caroline National Memorial and Theodore Roosevelt Area, Fort George Island Cultural State Park, Huguenot Memorial Park, Jennings State Forest, Kathryn Abby Hanna Park, Kingsley Plantation and Little Talbot Island State Park. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Duval County coastal access guide gives the same count of 11 Trail sites. Jennings State Forest is listed under both Clay and Duval, and its address is on Longhorn Road in Middleburg.

Source: the individual site pages of the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail, an FWC program. Listed hours are the Trail's; the City of Jacksonville posts different hours for Huguenot (6 a.m. opening), so check the managing agency before a visit.

Five of the Jacksonville sites sit on the islands north of the St. Johns River mouth, from Huguenot Memorial Park to the Talbot Islands.

Huguenot Memorial Park, the city park at 10980 Heckscher Drive, is the best known: the Trail records 237 species there, and part of the park is the Fort George Inlet Critical Wildlife Area, roped off when terns and shorebirds nest. The Trail calls the park a vital staging area for Red Knots and notes that it produced Florida's first Greater Sand-Plover in May 2009. The City of Jacksonville describes a portion of Huguenot as a critical wildlife area for nesting terns and shorebirds and posts a nature center open Friday through Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.

On Fort George Island, the Trail sends birders along the Saturiwa Trail through maritime hammock at Fort George Island Cultural State Park, looking for migratory songbirds in fall and nesting Indigo and Painted Buntings in spring and summer; an unimproved boat ramp behind the Ribault Clubhouse takes canoes, kayaks and small flat-bottomed boats. At the island's north tip, Kingsley Plantation is the Trail's pick for fall songbird migration: from mid-September to mid-October more than 20 species of wood-warbler use its hardwood hammocks, with wading birds and shorebirds on the Fort George River flats.

Farther up A1A are the Talbot Islands. The Trail calls Little Talbot Island State Park the center of the public lands on the north shore of the St. Johns River outlet and the first stop for bird lists and maps; large numbers of wintering Piping and Wilson's Plovers feed on its beach, its northern beach and shoals are the Nassau Sound Islands Critical Wildlife Area, and a rare Snowy Owl spent the winter there from December 2013. At Big Talbot Island State Park, birders check the tidal wetlands known as Spoonbill Pond, across from the Sawpit Creek boat ramp, for waders and shorebirds, look for Seaside Sparrows in the marsh by the ramp, and walk the Black Rock Trail for breeding Painted Buntings. Kayaks can launch at the ramp, for a small fee, into Sisters Creek.

Three of the Jacksonville sites are National Park Service land in the Timucuan Preserve: Fort Caroline and the Theodore Roosevelt Area, Kingsley Plantation and Cedar Point.

The Fort Caroline National Memorial and Theodore Roosevelt Area listing, with entrances at 12751 Fort Caroline Road and 13165 Mt Pleasant Road in Arlington, says the two sites represent some of the last untouched coastal habitat in northeast Florida. The Willie Brown Trail runs through maritime hammock to an observation platform where Clapper Rails can be seen or heard, and over 25 species of wood-warbler have been recorded. The National Park Service calls the observation platform in the Theodore Roosevelt Area a favorite spot for bird enthusiasts and notes that shorebirds are often seen in the marshes and beaches near Fort George Island.

On the Northside marshes, Cedar Point is a 419 acre Park Service tract at 9023 Cedar Point Road with maritime hammock, salt marsh, scrubby flatwoods and freshwater wetlands; the Park Service's Timucuan hiking page lists NPS Cedar Point and the JaxParks Cedar Point Preserve as connected trails. The Trail calls it a migrant magnet from mid-April through early May and again from late September to mid-October, with Painted and Indigo Buntings, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Scarlet Tanagers. Five miles of hiking trails start at a locked gate at the end of Cedar Point Road, and the listing warns that the area is wild and remote and that yellow flies make it unpleasant from late May to August.

Kathryn Abby Hanna Park on the ocean and Castaway Island Preserve on the Intracoastal Waterway are the two Jacksonville city sites south of the river mouth.

Kathryn Abby Hanna Park, at 500 Wonderwood Drive, has a checklist of over 200 bird species and nearly 20 miles of hiking and biking trails, the Trail reports. Its freshwater finger lakes hold Anhingas, Wood Storks and both night herons, 28 species of wood-warbler have turned up in its hammock, and the gazebo at beach access 9 is the place to scan for Northern Gannets and sea ducks. The City of Jacksonville describes a 60-acre freshwater lake and 1.5 miles of sandy beaches at Hanna Park, with a nature center in the campground open 1 to 4 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Castaway Island Preserve, at 2921 San Pablo Road South, has a raised 900-foot boardwalk extension with two observation overlooks over the salt marsh, where Wood Storks, Tricolored Herons and Snowy Egrets feed along the Intracoastal Waterway, and Northern Harriers and Tree Swallows appear in winter. The City of Jacksonville bought the preserve in three purchases in 2000 with help from a Florida Communities Trust grant that reimbursed $1,427,754, and the grant agreement requires a canoe launch, nature trails, waterway trails, information kiosks and picnic areas.

Yes, two: Camp Milton Historic Preserve on the Westside and Jennings State Forest, the shared Clay and Duval listing.

Camp Milton Historic Preserve, at 1225 Halsema Road North, is listed by the Trail at 385 acres, with paved trails through open fields, mixed pine and hardwood forest and longleaf pine regeneration areas. Eastern Bluebirds, Eastern Meadowlarks, Palm Warblers and Loggerhead Shrikes use the fields by the entrance, and the adjoining 15-mile Jacksonville-Baldwin Trail runs on its north side. According to the City of Jacksonville, three miles of earth and timber fortifications went up along the west bank of McGirts Creek in February and March 1864, the State of Florida bought the initial tract in 1981, and the preserve opened to the public in September 2006.

Jennings State Forest covers 25,255 acres with 15 biological communities, from sandhills to blackwater streams, the Trail reports. It is the listed Jacksonville-area site for resident sandhill species such as Bachman's Sparrow, Northern Bobwhite and Red-headed Woodpecker, with the 7-mile Sandridge Trail and the powerline at the end of Live Oak Lane named as good spots. The Florida Forest Service manages it, admission is charged, and seasonal hunting information is posted.

The Jacksonville sites came in with the Trail's East Florida section, which opened in November 2000.

According to the Trail's history page, the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail started as a Florida Audubon idea that quickly gained support from the then Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission, and by 1998 the project was up and running. The East Florida section, which holds the Jacksonville sites, opened with a guidebook in November 2000, the West section in November 2002, the Panhandle section in May 2004 and the South section in 2006. The Trail is managed by FWC's Public Access Service Office, and every partner has met its selection criteria.

The managers split four ways in Duval County. The City of Jacksonville runs Huguenot, Hanna Park, Castaway Island and Camp Milton; the National Park Service runs Fort Caroline and the Theodore Roosevelt Area, Kingsley Plantation and Cedar Point; the state Division of Recreation and Parks runs the two Talbot Islands and Fort George Island; and the Florida Forest Service runs Jennings. The DEP guide counts 22 miles of sandy beaches in the county, and the agencies do not always agree on acreage.

Sources: Birding Trail site pages, FL DEP Duval County coastal access guide and City of Jacksonville, Castaway Island Preserve. The figures are reported as each agency states them; the page does not resolve them.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, site by site on the Birding Trail's eleven Duval listings and its history page, with the DEP coastal access guide, two Timucuan Preserve pages and four JaxParks park pages checked alongside.