Vetted by Locals · Trusted by Birders
Our Local Partners
We don’t list businesses here for money. We list them because we’d send our own family there. These three operations represent the best of what Rockport has to offer birders, photographers, and anyone who loves the coast.
Where to Stay
Big Tree Cottages
Your birding basecamp on the Texas coast.
If you’re serious about birding Rockport — and we assume you are, or you wouldn’t be on this page — where you stay matters. Big Tree Cottages puts you right next to Goose Island State Park, one of the finest birding locations on the entire Texas coast.
Roll out of bed and you’re five minutes from the Big Tree grove — prime spring migration territory. Ten minutes from the Lamar Peninsula Beach Road and the whooping cranes. Twenty minutes from the Aransas NWR gate.
The cottages themselves are charming coastal Texas — comfortable, well-kept, and run by people who actually love living on this coast. They get birders. They’re used to guests who want a 5:30am checkout to catch the morning bird activity. They won’t judge you for the mud on your boots.
Goose Island is the kind of park where you can walk from your cottage into a warbler fallout during spring migration, or spot a painted bunting on the feeder before your first cup of coffee. Staying here versus staying in downtown Rockport is the difference between watching a nature documentary and being in one.
Big Tree Cottages — charming coastal cottages near Goose Island State Park
Photo coming soon
Why We Recommend Them
- 🌳 Walking distance to Goose Island State Park
- 🦢 Minutes from Lamar Peninsula crane country
- 🌅 Perfect for early-morning starts
- 🏡 Coastal Texas charm, not chain hotel sterility
- 🤝 Run by locals who love the coast
Aransas Bay birding charter — photographer photographing whooping cranes from boat
Photo coming soon
What They Offer
- 📸 Aransas Bay birding and photography charters
- 🦢 Whooping crane viewing by boat (Oct–Apr)
- 🎨 Stunning local bird photography prints
- 🤿 Knowledge of every sandbar and tide channel
- 🏆 Local guides with decades of experience
Boat Tours & Photography
Texas Birding Photos
The best views in Aransas Bay are from the water.
Land-based whooping crane viewing on Beach Road is incredible. But if you want to see what it looks like when a family of three 5-foot-tall white birds walks along a tidal shoreline with the Aransas marshes behind them — you need to be on the water.
Texas Birding Photos runs Aransas Bay charters that do exactly that. Local captains who know every sandbar, every tide channel, and — more importantly — every spot where the crane families feed. They don’t show you the bay; they show you the birds.
Beyond charters, Texas Birding Photos produces some of the finest bird photography from the Texas Coastal Bend. If you’re looking for a print of a whooping crane at Aransas, a roseate spoonbill over the bay, or an intimate portrait of a Reddish Egret hunting the shallows — this is where to look.
Book your charter early — slots in peak crane season (December–February) fill weeks in advance.
⭐ Featured Partner & Rockport Institution
Hummingbird Company
Quirky bird art, feeder mix & gifts in Rockport TX.
There’s no place quite like Hummingbird Company. It’s part gift shop, part art gallery, part feeder supply store, and entirely Rockport. If you love birds — especially if you love birds with a sense of humor and a sense of place — this shop was made for you.
Walk in and you’ll find whooping crane gifts that don’t feel like airport souvenirs. Hummingbird feeder mix blended for Texas conditions. Art that celebrates the birds of the Texas coast in a way that’s joyful and irreverent rather than stiff and scientific. Locally inspired gifts that you’ll actually want to bring home or give to someone who doesn’t (yet) love birds as much as you do.
During the Hummingbird Festival, this is the headquarters of all things hummingbird. Locals stop in. Birders from across the country make it a required stop. And if you’re trying to set up a proper migration feeder station, they’ll tell you exactly what to buy and how to set it up.
We send every visiting birder here. Not because they asked us to. Because every single one of them thanks us for it later.
Hummingbird Company storefront in Rockport Texas — quirky bird art and gifts
Photo coming soon
What You’ll Find
These Are Our People
Rockport is a small community built on the water, the birds, and the people who love both. When you visit and spend money at these businesses, you’re investing in the ecosystem — literally and figuratively — that makes Rockport worth coming back to year after year.