World Migratory Bird Day

World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) is a biannual global awareness-raising campaign highlighting the need for the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats. Every year, on the second Saturday in May and October, dedicated people and organizations around the world celebrate World Migratory Bird Day by arranging activities such as bird festivals, education programmes, exhibitions and bird-watching excursions. Event organizers are encouraged to register their events at the WMBD website. In this way, individual events can be shared with others around the world and help inspire other people and organizations to get involved.

 

History of World Migratory Bird Day

World Migratory Bird Day was initiated in 2006 by the Secretariat of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). Since then, WMBD has been celebrated annually and has been growing in popularity with more countries, organizations and people joining the campaign every year.

On 26 October 2017 in the margins of the CMS COP12 in Manila, Environment for the Americas (EFTA), CMS and AEWA announced an innovative partnership uniting two of the world’s largest bird education campaigns – International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) and WMBD. From 2018 onwards, the new joint campaign adopted the single name of "World Migratory Bird Day" and is celebrated twice a year, on the second Saturday in May and in October, making it possible to organize events in countries around the world at peak times of bird migration.

For further information, please visit the website:

Access the World Migratory Bird Day Website