Birds of South Carolina

The South Carolina Bird Records Committee of the Carolina Bird Club counted 446 species definitively on the state list as of mid-2021, with 114 of them rare anywhere in the state and another 34 rare away from the coast. That last number is the shape of the place: the state tilts from the Blue Ridge corner in the northwest, through the red-clay Piedmont and the sandhills, down across the flat coastal plain to barrier islands, and the closer you get to the water the more species pile on.

For a beginner the first birds are the same from Greenville to Beaufort: cardinal, wren, chickadee, titmouse, dove, crow. They are all year-round residents, which is why South Carolina never really goes quiet.

The South Carolina album

These are the 100 birds people report most often in South Carolina, ranked by how frequently they turn up. The common and uncommon ones are shown; the rare and legendary cards stay face down until you catch them in the game.

Backyard birds you will hear first

The Northern Cardinal leads the album and starts singing in January here, cheer, cheer, cheer from a crape myrtle. The Carolina Wren is second and the loudest bird in any yard: teakettle from the woodpile, from under the porch. The Carolina Chickadee gives a quick, high four-note whistle and the Tufted Titmouse a clear peter, peter, peter, usually from the same feeder within the same minute.

The Mourning Dove coos from the wires and the American Crow caws over everything. The Red-bellied Woodpecker rolls its churr from the pines, the Northern Mockingbird sings from the highest point on the block and runs through every other bird on this page, the Blue Jay screams, and the Eastern Bluebird warbles softly from a fence post or a nest box by the road. The Turkey Vulture makes the top twelve without a sound, tilting on the thermals over every highway.

The regions, by ear

The Lowcountry coast

Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, along the coast between McClellanville and Awendaw north of Charleston, was established in 1932 for migratory waterfowl and has recorded more than 293 bird species across its barrier islands, maritime forest, brackish ponds and salt marsh. It holds the largest wintering population of American Oystercatchers on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, plus Black Skimmers, Wilson's Plovers and Red Knots. Clapper Rails clatter in the marsh, Willets scream, and Brown Pelicans glide in lines just off the sand.

The pine flatwoods

Francis Marion National Forest, north of Charleston, is longleaf pine country: Pine Warbler trills, Brown-headed Nuthatches squeaking like rubber ducks in the crowns, Bachman's Sparrows singing from the wiregrass, Red-cockaded Woodpeckers in the old pines, and Chuck-will's-widows calling their names on spring nights.

The Congaree

Congaree National Park, about 18 miles southeast of Columbia, protects the largest tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States, 26,692 acres of it, with one of the tallest temperate deciduous canopies in the world. It became a national park on November 10, 2003. On the boardwalk you hear Prothonotary Warblers ringing sweet, sweet, sweet over the sloughs, Pileated Woodpeckers laughing, and Barred Owls calling in broad daylight.

The Upstate

The Blue Ridge corner around Caesars Head and the Jocassee Gorges is a different state: Wood Thrush, Ovenbird, Black-throated Green Warbler and Scarlet Tanager in the hardwood coves, Ravens croaking over the cliffs.

Best months to listen

April is the peak: the residents have been singing for two months, the Prothonotaries and the Chuck-will's-widows are back, and the migrant warblers are moving through the coastal live oaks and the Upstate coves. March is the month to hear the pines before the heat. Summer mornings are loud until about nine, then cicadas take over, so start at dawn. September brings the hawks over Caesars Head and the shorebirds to the beaches, and winter is the best time for the coast, with oystercatchers and ducks at Cape Romain and the same wren shouting through it all.

Places worth the drive

• Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, near McClellanville: oystercatchers, skimmers, plovers on the barrier islands.
• Congaree National Park, southeast of Columbia: old-growth swamp forest, Prothonotary Warblers and daytime Barred Owls.
• Francis Marion National Forest, north of Charleston: longleaf pine, Bachman's Sparrow and Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

None of it is required. A porch in Columbia with a live oak and a bluebird box gives you the first 20 cards in Warble in a week, and the wren will make sure you hear it.

Listen before you go

Three of the common South Carolina birds, so the first songs you hear outside already ring a bell.

Canada Goose song

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Recording by Chase Harris, CC0, via iNaturalist.

Mourning Dove song

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Recording by Chase Harris, CC0, via iNaturalist.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird song

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Recording by Chase Harris, CC0, via iNaturalist.

Questions people ask

Nearby albums

Album data: public bird observations aggregated through GBIF, ranked by report frequency in South Carolina. Updated September 30, 2026.