The Bird Island Research Department (B.I.R.D.) is a collaborative research and storytelling project focused on the wild and beautiful and changing bird islands of the Carolina Lowcountry.
Working alongside partners including the College of Charleston, Coastal Expeditions Foundation, the M.A.R.S.H. Project, SCDNR, and local community members, we explore how seabirds and shorebirds, marshes and islands, and people all shape the history and future of coastal life here in the Lowcountry.From Crab Bank and Marsh Island to Deveaux Bank, Bird Key-Stono, and Tomkins Island, these near-shore islands provide key habitat and nesting grounds for seabirds and migratory shorebirds. They are also living laboratories to understand and enact ecological restoration and rewilding for the benefit of humans, birds, and coastal resilience.Through fieldwork, photography, oral histories, mapping, film, student research, and citizen science, the B.I.R.D. team is working to make coastal science more accessible and engaging. We believe environmental storytelling can help communities better understand and protect the ecosystems we all depend on.This project is also about action. Alongside research, we support habitat restoration, oyster reef building, native planting, shoreline resilience projects, and hands-on opportunities for students and community members to participate directly in conservation work.
Whether you are a birder, student, scientist, artist, fisherman, educator, or simply someone who is curious about the coast — welcome. Join us!