Birders Flock to the Inaugural Birding Festival of the South
Insiders call it a “spark bird” — the very first bird that lights your path to birding. For Alexis Hampo, special events manager for Visit Hot Springs and the mind that sparked the Birding Festival of the South, the first bird that called to her was the Carolina wren.
“Once I was able to identify the call that I had been hearing all my life,” Alexis said, “it made me feel so much more connected to my surroundings and the birds all around me.”
Half-jokingly, she put a jar on her desk and taped a piece of paper to it that read “Bird Fest Funds.” The jar only collected about $1.50, but the idea nested at the office for three years, until then-CEO of Visit Hot Springs Steve Arrison dug deeper and realized the economic potential, and public interest, in a local birding festival.
The first Birding Festival of the South will be held October 8 to 10, 2026 at the Hot Springs Convention Center. Organized to unite birders of all experience levels from all corners of the state, the festival’s programming will feature musical performances, workshops for adults and youth, field trips, and keynotes by well-known national birding enthusiasts. The event is the only birding festival in Arkansas — surprising, considering the wealth of birding opportunities the state provides.
“Arkansas alone has recorded over 400 species, and it sits right along major migration routes,” explained Alison Kondler, Audubon Master Birder and the festival’s keynote speaker. “The habitat [here] is a stopover for migrating birds, with Delta wetlands and Ozark forests in one state. That’s a huge range of habitat, attracting a variety of bird life.”
Alison’s keynote will focus on one of her great passions —birding by ear. Through bird sound mimicry, creative mnemonics, and storytelling, she teaches people to identify birds by their calls. Alison’s interest in birding took flight while she volunteered as a naturalist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife at Mount Blue Sky, where a constant task was helping visitors spot the elusive brown-capped rosy finch.
“Remembering bird sounds was like a survival tool when I started leading birding trips where most of the people knew more than me,” Alison said. “Tapping into my overactive imagination, I started adding words, imagery, and stories to the bird’s vocalizations, many of which have comedy intertwined or relate back to the bird’s name or field marks. This then turned into an entire bird sound learning system.”
In addition to her Saturday keynote at the Convention Center, Alison will lead a walk Friday morning on Northwoods Trails around Lakes Dillon and Bethel, giving festival goers an opportunity to learn in the field. The hike, like the festival itself, is a chance to slow down, listen, and connect with nature, and hopefully, it will be a way to get people thinking more deeply about the birds around them.
“My love for birds runs incredibly deep, it almost hurts,” Alison expressed, “And with their declining populations around the world, these birds need a voice on a mass scale to get people involved in birding, to appreciate them enough to protect them.”
Harrowing research published in 2019 by Science reported that the population of North American birds had declined twenty-nine percent since 1977, more than one in four birds gone in less than fifty years. The findings show that it’s not just threatened species disappearing. Even the most frequent visitors to backyard feeders are at risk. The U.S. Committee of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative’s 2025 State of the Birds Report noted that even once-optimistic duck populations are now in decline. Much of the research points to climate change; habitat loss from urban and agricultural expansion; depleted insect populations due to pesticide use; predation by outdoor cats; and other human influences.
“We are the initial stop for many migratory birds making their way from South America to Canada, and our environment is as essential to the birds as they are to the functioning of our ecosystem,” stressed singer-songwriter and birding advocate Bonner Black. “Birds help regulate our mosquito and wasp population and assist us in so many ways.”
Bonner is slated to perform Friday at the Convention Center, and she will lead a Saturday morning Birds on the Brain Meditation and Bird Walk at Garvan Woodland Gardens. Bonner’s “spark bird” landed in her backyard during a particularly low moment in her life. She thought a hobby might help, so she picked up a pair of binoculars and never set them down.
“Birding is a grounding exercise when you think about it,” she reflected. “I was going outside, getting sun on my face, being present and aware, and getting endorphins from taking on a challenge and succeeding in finding and identifying birds. Watching the great blue heron hunt slowly on the banks taught me that I need to get still and centered. Watching the fledglings learn how to fly taught me that failure is a part of the journey.”
A common thread for Birding Festival of the South’s speakers and organizers has to do with fledglings of another kind. By offering engaging outdoor activities, musical performances, and innovative speakers who educate in approachable, experiential ways, the festival hopes to inspire a younger generation to love birds and the wild places they inhabit.
“Have you ever seen small children on hikes with their parents?” asks Alison. “Most often they’re bored out of their gourds. But give them something to focus on, like how many birds they can hear or see, and a grueling hike in the woods turns into a fun treasure-hunting adventure. Every memory made in nature becomes a reason to protect it later.”
Adding the right dash of humor to conservation, the festival’s lineup also includes podcaster-musician-cartoonists Extremely Accurate Birds for a musical performance, songwriting workshop, and a bird walk on the Hot Springs Greenway; Derek and Ryan Sallmann, the brother duo behind popular YouTube channel Badgerland Birding will present and lead a field trip at the Andrew Hulsey Fish Hatchery; and nationally-acclaimed country musician Melissa Carper opens the festival with a free public concert in the Bridge Street Entertainment District. For every speaker’s Convention Center presentation, there is an outdoor counterpart, because what would a birding festival be without ample time to get outside, break out the binoculars, and catch a glimpse of the main attraction?
The Birding Festival of the South, presented by Oaklawn Hot Springs, will take place at the Hot Springs Convention Center and throughout the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas, October 8 to 10, 2026. For more information, visit hotsprings.org or call 501.321.2277. On Instagram, find Alison Kondler as @birding_by_ear and Bonner Black as @bonnerblack.
BONNER BLACK’S BIRDING TIPS FOR BEGINNERS
- Buy as many field guides as you can. Apps like Merlin are extremely useful tools when finding birds, so definitely download them, but never solely rely on those apps to record or report the birds heard.
- Be humble in the birding community, ask a lot of questions, and find the experienced birders and ask to go birding with them.
- Birding is not about knowing it all. Birding is about observing, learning, experiencing, and connecting.
- Keep an extra pair of binoculars in your car at all times. Never leave your state or the country without a pair of binoculars. Travel is an opportunity to find new birds!
- Most importantly, never harass a bird in order to get close or get a photo. Always keep a respectful distance and take care of the sites you visit.
