April is Louisiana's birding crown jewel — the height of trans-Gulf migration, when a cold front can drop thousands of warblers, tanagers, and buntings onto Grand Isle and the coastal cheniers in a single morning. The Louisiana irises peak in the bayous, the gardens are lush, and the strawberries are at their festival best.
Week by week in April
April 2–8
- Trans-Gulf migration peaks — a north wind can drop a fallout of tanagers, grosbeaks, buntings, and dozens of warbler species at Grand Isle.
- The native Louisiana irises reach full peak in the Acadiana wetlands and the New Orleans gardens, painting the swamps blue, purple, and gold.
- Swallowtails are at their spring best, and the coastal cheniers concentrate migrating butterflies alongside the warbler fallouts.
April 9–15
- Marsh rookeries swing into nesting — Roseate Spoonbills, egrets, herons, and ibis build colonies as Prothonotary Warblers blaze gold over the swamps.
- Plant the full warm-season garden statewide — tomatoes, okra, southern peas, squash, beans, and sweet potato slips.
- Ponchatoula strawberries are at their festival peak alongside spring lettuces, broccoli, new potatoes, and the first squash.
April 16–22
- The Lyrid meteor shower peaks around April 22, a modest but reliable shower best after midnight from a dark coastal-marsh site.
- Spider lilies open in the wet ditches and Confederate jasmine begins to perfume the gardens as the last azaleas fade.
- Least Terns and Black Skimmers stake out the beaches, and Mississippi Kites join the swallow-tails over the bottomlands.
April 23–29
- The Southern magnolia, the state flower, swells its great buds toward its first creamy blossoms, and the fringe tree drips white flowers.
- Gulf fritillaries lay eggs on passionflower and giant swallowtail orangedogs feed on citrus as the garden hums with spring butterflies.
- Spring vegetables peak — sugar snaps, broccoli, new potatoes, carrots, and baby greens — with the first summer squash arriving.
Birds This Month
April is the peak of Louisiana's trans-Gulf migration, one of the most spectacular birding events in North America. Millions of songbirds that wintered in the tropics cross the open Gulf and make their first landfall on the Louisiana coast. When a north wind or rain front meets them, a fallout drips birds from every live oak at Grand Isle and Peveto Woods — flocks of Scarlet and Summer Tanagers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Indigo and Painted Buntings, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, and dozens of warbler species including Cerulean, Blackburnian, Magnolia, Bay-breasted, and Blackpoll.
The marshes and rookeries are in full breeding swing — Roseate Spoonbills, Great and Snowy Egrets, Tricolored Herons, and White and Glossy Ibis nest in cypress and willow colonies, while Least Terns and Black Skimmers stake out the beaches. Swallow-tailed and Mississippi Kites soar over the bottomland forests, the Brown Pelican, the state bird, tends colonies on the barrier islands, and Prothonotary Warblers blaze gold over the flooded swamps. Resident birds are nesting statewide.
What's Blooming
April is the lush heart of Louisiana spring. The famous native Louisiana irises reach their peak in the swamps, bayous, and wet ditches of the southern parishes, painting the wetlands blue, purple, copper, gold, and red — the Acadiana wetlands and the City Park gardens in New Orleans are renowned. Roadsides blaze with golden coreopsis, Indian paintbrush, phlox, and the first spiderwort and evening primrose.
The Cajun Prairie remnants burst into bloom with blue-eyed grass, baby blue eyes, blue wild indigo, and prairie phlox, and the longleaf pine flatwoods light up with native orchids and the carnivorous pitcher plants raising their nodding flowers. In the woods, Carolina jessamine, crossvine, coral honeysuckle, and wild azalea bloom, while the heady Confederate jasmine, sweet olive, and gardenia begin to perfume the gardens. Spider lilies open in the wet ditches, and the last azaleas fade as the first magnolia buds swell toward May.
Garden This Month
April is a peak production month in the Louisiana garden, with the spring crops harvesting and the warm-season garden surging. Across the state plant or continue the heat-lovers: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, southern (field) peas, squash, cucumbers, snap and lima beans, sweet corn, cantaloupe, and watermelon, and set out sweet potato slips as the soil fully warms. Make successive sowings of corn and beans for a continuous harvest before the worst heat.
Harvest the spring garden before it bolts — lettuce, spinach, English peas, carrots, beets, broccoli, and new Irish potatoes. Plant warm-season herbs and tropicals, and keep basil going strong. Mulch everything heavily as the dry, hot stretches begin, and stay ahead of the weeds, aphids, leaf-footed bugs, and the first tomato hornworms. Feed and deadhead the spring flowers, plant heat-tolerant annuals — zinnias, marigolds, pentas, lantana — and divide the Louisiana irises after they finish blooming. Water deeply and early in the day.
Zone 8a (north Louisiana): all danger of frost has passed. Plant the full warm-season garden — tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, southern peas, squash, cucumbers, beans, and sweet corn — and set out sweet potato slips as the soil fully warms.
Zone 9a (Acadiana & central prairie): warm-season crops are thriving. Make successive sowings of beans, corn, and squash, plant okra and southern peas for the long heat, and begin watering and mulching against the coming dry, hot stretches.
Zone 9b (lower delta & New Orleans): harvest the first squash, beans, and cucumbers as the heat builds. Focus on the heat-lovers — okra, southern peas, eggplant, hot peppers, and sweet potatoes — that will carry through the long Louisiana summer.
What's at the Farmers Market
April is a festival month at Louisiana markets — Ponchatoula strawberries from Tangipahoa Parish are at their peak, celebrated at the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival, filling the Crescent City, Red Stick, and Lafayette markets with fragrant red flats. Crawfish remains at its spring height, the cultural icon sold live by the sack, and the spring vegetable garden delivers its best.
The stalls brim with cool-season produce in its prime before the heat — lettuces, spinach, arugula, radishes, green onions, sugar snap and English peas, broccoli, cauliflower, new potatoes, carrots, beets, and baby greens. The first summer squash, zucchini, and cucumbers begin to appear at the warmest farms, alongside fresh eggs, local honey, and cut flowers. Choose strawberries fully red and fragrant with bright caps, refrigerate them unwashed, and use within a few days. Pick crawfish lively and heavy with a clean smell and cook the same day, and select greens crisp and unwilted, refrigerating them promptly to hold their crunch.
Night Sky This Month
April's mild spring nights over Louisiana carry more humidity and haze than winter, but clear evenings still reward dark-sky seekers. The open marshes of Sabine and Cameron Prairie NWRs, the Acadiana ricelands, the pinelands of Kisatchie National Forest, and the Atchafalaya remain the darkest escapes from the river-city glow. The Baton Rouge Astronomical Society and Pontchartrain Astronomy Society run spring star parties, and the LIGO Science Education Center near Livingston hosts public programs.
The spring sky is on full display. Leo rides high overhead with bright Regulus, the Big Dipper swings high in the north, and its handle arcs down to golden Arcturus in Boötes, then on to blue-white Spica in Virgo — the great Spring Triangle. This is galaxy season for telescope owners, with the Virgo Cluster riding the meridian. The Lyrid meteor shower peaks around April 22, a modest but reliable shower best after midnight from a dark site. The printable Louisiana night-sky guide gives this year's exact peak date, the Moon phase, and planet positions.
Butterflies & Pollinators
April is a glorious butterfly month in Louisiana. The swallowtails are at their spring best — eastern tiger, black, pipevine, giant, and zebra swallowtails all on the wing, with the spicebush swallowtail in the bottomland woods. The gulf fritillary, variegated fritillary, cloudless sulphur, sleepy orange, and orange sulphur fill the gardens and fields, and the red admiral, American lady, painted lady, common buckeye, and question mark are abundant.
The spring monarch generation continues moving north, laying eggs on Louisiana's native milkweeds, and the coastal cheniers and Grand Isle ridges concentrate migrating butterflies alongside the famous warbler fallouts. The tiny spring azure, gray hairstreak, and a host of grass skippers multiply on the lush nectar. This is the ideal month to enjoy a butterfly garden, and to keep native host plants — milkweed for monarchs, passionflower for gulf fritillaries, pawpaw for zebras, and citrus or Hercules-club for giant swallowtails — well watered as the caterpillars hatch and feed.
What to plant for them is in the Louisiana native plants guide
Trees This Month
April closes the leafing-out of Louisiana's forests, the canopy now full and deep green. The bald cypress, the state tree, and the water tupelo have filled the Atchafalaya swamps with their soft new foliage, and the bottomland water, willow, overcup, and Nuttall oaks are fully leafed. The live oaks of the coast and bayous have completed their leaf exchange and dangle long catkins.
The flowering trees give their last spring show. Flowering dogwood finishes in the uplands, the native fringe tree (grancy graybeard) drips its white fringed flowers, and the parsley hawthorn and red mulberry bloom in the woods. The Southern magnolia, the state flower, swells its great buds toward the first blossoms at month's end. In the wetlands, buttonbush and swamp titi begin to flower for the bees, and along the bayous the black willow and sweetbay magnolia green the banks. The northern pinelands have shed their pollen, and the longleaf savannas stand lush green over the spring wildflowers.
The Louisiana native plants guide covers what grows with them
Weather & Daylight
Across Louisiana, a typical April day averages a high near 78°F and a low near 56°F, with about 5.1 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Pleasant warmth builds toward 78 degrees by day, nights turning mild, with steady rain refreshing everything in bloom.
| Average high | 78°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 56°F |
| Precipitation | 5.1 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 6:40 CT |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 19:35 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 Louisiana's next month turns — what's arriving, blooming, and worth a night outside.
Go deeper with the Louisiana guides
The complete Louisiana birding, native-plant, and night-sky references — or the whole year, week by week, in one book.
Same month elsewhere: April in Maine · April in Maryland · April in Massachusetts