REGISTRATION WILL OPEN IN THE FALL OF 2025.
Keep checking this space for festival announcements.
“I’d give this festival an A+!”— Attendee at our 2023 festival
Birders have flocked – yeah, we said it — to South Carolina’s Hammock Coast for years to enjoy our unique coastal area that’s home, throughout the year, to more than 300 species of birds. Southern Living noted that the area is the best birding site on the East Coast, and experts at Clemson University have said the region offers the best birding opportunities in South Carolina.
Our 2023, 2024 and 2025 festivals were great successes – bringing in birders from nearly 25 states and Canada! Our 2024 and 2025 festivals featured well-received keynote speeched by Dr. Patrick McMillan, a celebrated naturalist and author.
When it comes to an overall birding experience, there’s nothing quite like the Hammock Coast with its miles of pristine beaches, marshes and rivers teeming with birds and waterfowl, as well as tens of thousands of acres of protected forests. That’s why we’ve teamed up with six of our premier birding locations to offer the Hammock Coast Birding Festival each February. Many past attendees were able to add extensively to their life list.
Special tours of Brookgreen Gardens, Hobcaw Barony, Huntington Beach State Park, the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center, and the Black River Cypress Preserve are key parts of the festival! We’ve even added the Georgetown County Landfill to the tour locations, and, in 2025, it was one of most highly rate tours with attendees getting great views of Bald Eagles and other birds from the van tour.
The 2026 festival will once again, as we did in the first three years, feature a showing of Zach Steinhauser’s acclaimed Purple Martin documentary, “Purple Haze: A Conservation Film.”
Emmy Award-winner Dr. Patrick McMillan will be back as our keynote speaker, as well, in 2026!
We have some exciting photography and art events, too. Want to learn how to paint a cardinal on a feather? Here’s your chance!
Registration for the 2026 festival gives you the opportunity to go to as many tour locations, lectures and events as you can fit into your schedule. It also includes two evening dinners.
Cost and details coming soon! (For your planning purposes, last year’s festival was priced at $350 per person for the all-inclusive event, with an early-bird price of $299.99 per person.) Again, sign up to receive information about the 2026 festival, set for Feb. 4-8, 2026.
Our 4th annual Hammock Coast Birding Festival will be held Feb. 4-8, 2025! Why February? Well, it’s one of the best times of the year for migrating winter birds, especially waterfowl. Our area also has locations where the increasingly rare Red-Cockaded Woodpecker can be found, as well as other birds such as the Swallow-Tailed Kite, the Roseate Spoonbill and more. Nestled between Charleston and Myrtle Beach, the Hammock Coast has long been a draw for visitors seeking a more laid back and nature-centric vacation, and birds seek out our area, too — either as an all-year-long home or a stop over on their trips north and south.
When it comes to a birding festival experience, there’s nothing quite like the Hammock Coast with its miles of pristine beaches, marshes and rivers teeming with birds and waterfowl, as well as tens of thousands of acres of protected forests. That’s why we team up with five of our premier birding locations to offer the Hammock Coast Birding Festival each February. Many attendees were able to add extensively to their life list.
Our festival will offer four days of tours, presentations and speakers — and, most importantly, special tours and access to the Black River Cypress Preserve, Brookgreen Gardens (registration comes with a seven-day pass), Hobcaw Barony, Huntington Beach State Park, and the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center. Those four areas combined offer more than nearly 50,000 acres of protected land where birds of all kinds live and thrive. Some of the areas where festivalgoers will be able to tour are rarely open to the general public.
This is a rare opportunity to hear from experts who live and work here, offering an opportunity for first-hand experience about the birds that call the Hammock Coast home.
Welcome Packet Pick-up will be held Wednesday, Feb. 4, at the Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center at 28 Wall Street, Pawleys Island. PLEASE PLAN ON PICKING UP YOUR PACKETS ON FEB. 4. Tours start early on Thursday, Feb. 5, and you must pick up your packet IN ADVANCE of any tour.
We are so excited that our keynote speaker for the 2026 Hammock Coast Birding Festival will once again be Emmy Award-winner Dr. Patrick D. McMillan — botanist, conservation biologist, plantsman, horticulturist, botanical garden management specialist, author, television and radio personality, TV producer!
Patrick is a well-known fixture in the horticultural, taxonomic, and conservation circles. For over 30 years, he has worked as a professional botanist, horticulturist, naturalist, biologist, and educator. His explorations of the globe have added hundreds of new species and cultivars to the horticultural world. His transformation of the South Carolina Botanical Garden, including the development of the natural heritage garden exhibits, were formative in the development of the gardening style he has coined as “natural community gardening.” His horticultural research interests lie in the maintenance and generation of diversity using our managed landscapes and the conservation of rare species both in their native habitats and in gardens. He has also worked extensively in the introduction and evaluation of plants from the Chihuahuan desert ecoregion as landscape plants in the Southeast and Pacific Northwest. His range of experience has concentrated on botany, though he is also well-respected through his work in ichthyology, herpetology and mammalogy. Patrick is perhaps best known as the Emmy Award-winning host, co-creator and writer of the popular ETV nature program “Expeditions with Patrick McMillan.” Patrick is a longtime fan of South Carolina’s Hammock Coast and will bring a wealth of knowledge about birds of South Carolina’s Lowcountry.
Founded in 1931 by Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington, Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet has been described as a unique melding of art, nature and history. With the slogan “Ever Changing, Simply Amazing,” it features life-sized sculptures by Anna Huntington and other artists throughout the 9,100-acre property. Brookgreen Gardens is one of America’s premier sculpture gardens which also offers a zoo with animals native to the area. For the festival, Brookgreen will offer exclusive birding tours by land and by boat with a local expert to offer insight about the birds that can be seen in this extraordinary setting. As a bonus, your ticket to Brookgreen isn’t just good for your festival tour — it’s good for the whole week, providing you access to the full gardens, as well as art galleries and the Lowcountry Zoo, if you choose to extend your visit to South Carolina’s Hammock Coast.
Slightly north of historic Georgetown, Hobcaw Barony is a 16,000-acre preserve and wildlife refuge owned by The Belle W. Baruch Foundation. Historically, it was the winter residence of presidential adviser and Wall Street millionaire Bernard M. Baruch. Open to the public through expertly guided tours, visitors see the 13,500-square-foot mansion he called home and where he hosted such visitors as President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Other areas in the refuge include the grounds and stables of Bellefield Plantation and a salt marsh boardwalk. For the birding festival, tours will not only provide access to the historic aspects of Hobcaw but will, through the aid of experts, provide details on the birds that can be found there. Hobcaw is important for birding because of its location at the mouth of Winyah Bay and its extensive longleaf pine forests with Red-cockaded Woodpecker colonies and excellent Bachman’s Sparrow habitat – some of many species of birds in South Carolina.
A 2,500-acre coastal nature preserve, Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet features a pristine, rarely crowded beach and some of the best birding in all of South Carolina, with more than 330 bird species logged at the park. Ranger Mike Walker will offer various tours, especially designed for the festival about the birds and habitat offered at one of the most beautiful state parks in the USA. Walker will take attendees along the Atlantic Ocean to visit a jetty that attracts visiting waterfowl throughout the year — and especially during winter migrations. Hiking trails throughout the park bring birders and other nature enthusiasts together for amazing wildlife viewing opportunities. The park also features Atalaya Castle, the one-time home of Archer and Anna Huntington, founders of nearby Brookgreen Gardens.
The southernmost area for the festival will take attendees to the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center, which spans more than 24,000 acres and shifts from longleaf pine forest to maritime forest and ocean beach with marshes and managed wetlands in between. More than 200 different species of birds and a host of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects live there. The center encompasses North Island, South Island, and the majority of Cat Island in Georgetown County’s portion of the Intracoastal Waterway at the mouth of Winyah Bay. The center remains a reflection of Yawkey’s vision, a place where animals and natural ecosystems can thrive, and people are only an occasional visitor. Birding Festival attendees will be provided special tours by Department of Natural Resources personnel that are rarely offered to the general public.
The Black River Cypress Preserve, a privately owned nature preserve located on the scenic Black River and is located in the western part of Georgetown County and the Hammock Coast. The Cypress Preserve — with its companion Black River property, the Peninsula Tract — are key conservation projects for Butler Conservation and offer abundant opportunities for outdoor recreation, education, and research in naturally beautiful and diverse ecosystems. The Black River is a classic Southeastern blackwater river, flowing through hardwood forests to a coastal landscape of salt-marsh estuaries and barrier islands. It offers year round opportunities for excellent birding. Cypress Preserve guides will lead festival attendees who register for this tour.
Three friends enjoy a long weekend of birding on the Hammock Coast
Our 2023, 2024 and 2025 Birding Festivals were great successes — bringing in birders from more than 20 states and Canada! Click on the hyperlinks to read about them.
Each year of the festival has featured a showing of Zach Steinhauser’s acclaimed Purple Martin documentary, “Purple Haze: A Conservation Film,” and Zach will be back for the 2026 festival!
DETAILS AND REGISTRATION FOR THE 2026 FESTIVAL WILL OPEN IN THE FALL OF 2025.
KEEP CHECKING BACK HERE FOR DETAILS!
Have questions about the upcoming festival? We’ve got answers! Register for this event and stay tuned for registration details coming soon!
Registration for the 2026 festival, which will include access to all events and two evening dinners, will open in the fall of 2025. Date TBD.
For a convenient and comfortable stay during the Hammock Coast Birding Festival, we have three “preferred partners” that are offering special rates before, during and after the festival. Click here to go to the birding festival accommodations page. Preferred lodging partners offer special rates for festival attendees. The Brookwood Inn in Murrells Inlet provides a quiet, charming stay surrounded by natural beauty. The Hampton Inn in Pawleys Island offers modern comforts and easy access to key birding sites. For a more resort-like experience, the Litchfield Beach and Golf Resort features oceanfront condos, efficiency condos and more, as well as dining options and access to Starbucks on property. Staying with these partners ensures you’re close to all the festival activities and local attractions and ensures that you get the best birding festival lodging deal! It is recommended that you stay in the Murrells Inlet, Litchfield Beach or Pawleys Island areas of the Hammock Coast, as they are all central to many of the festival activities. Staying further north in the Myrtle Beach area is not recommended, as it will put attendees further away from activities, especially the Yawkey, Hobcaw Barony and Cypress Preserve tours.
The Hammock Coast Birding Festival isn’t a traditional ticketed event. Instead, visitors pay one set registration fee that grants attendees access to all tours, lectures, etc. that attendees can choose from following reservations. Tours, lectures, etc. are first-come, first-served. While there are multiple options for all attendees, every tour or lecture is not guaranteed, but we do try to make as many available as possible. Many tours and lectures are offered at multiple times during the festival.
By its nature, the Hammock Coast Birding Festival tours take place in wilderness areas, along beaches, etc. Many of these locations will not be accessible by wheelchair. Some of the locations will be mildly strenuous and require some hiking and walking long distances. So we do not guarantee that attendees will be able to navigate all terrain associated with the birding festival. We recommend contacting festival organizers to inquire about tour locations and events if you have questions about ease of accessibility. Many of the locations will also not allow pets because of their locations as nature preserves.
While we understand you’d want to share this fun day outdoors with your four-legged friend, unfortunately, pets are not allowed into many of the venues for the birding festival.
