World Migratory Bird Day 2027 is on Saturday

About World Migratory Bird Day

Many bird species travel between breeding and wintering grounds each year, crossing borders, seas, deserts and cities on routes known as flyways. Along the way they need safe places to rest and feed, and they face growing pressures from people: habitat lost to poorly planned development, collisions with glass and buildings made worse by light pollution, pesticides, and predators such as domestic cats. World Migratory Bird Day uses a yearly theme to focus attention on one of these issues and on what people and governments can do about it.

The day has two roots. International Migratory Bird Day was created in the Americas in 1993 by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and is now run by the nonprofit Environment for the Americas. Separately, the secretariats of the UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) started World Migratory Bird Day in 2006. In 2018 the two campaigns joined into a single global event. Its partners today are CMS, AEWA, Environment for the Americas and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership, and the UN lists it among its international observances under the UN Environment Programme.

Because birds migrate at different times in different parts of the world, the organizers set two main dates each year: the second Saturday in May and the second Saturday in October. Groups may also hold events whenever migration peaks where they live. The 2025 theme was "Shared Spaces: Creating Bird-friendly Cities and Communities," and the 2026 theme, "Every Bird Counts: Your Observations Matter!", highlights the role of community science in tracking bird populations.

Sources: World Migratory Bird Day: 2026 campaign and dates, World Migratory Bird Day: 2025 campaign, Environment for the Americas: World Migratory Bird Day history, World Migratory Bird Day: What is WMBD? (CMS/AEWA, archived 2016), United Nations: List of international days and weeks. How we check dates.

How to mark World Migratory Bird Day

• Join a bird walk, festival or count registered on the campaign's events map, or log your own sightings with a community science app.
• Reduce bird collisions at home by marking large windows with screens, external decals or patterned film.
• Turn off unneeded outdoor and upper-floor lights at night during spring and autumn migration.
• Plant native shrubs and flowers that give migrating birds insects, seeds and cover.
• Keep cats indoors or supervised outside, especially when migrants are passing through.
• Visit a wetland, coast or park that serves as a stopover site and learn which species rest there.

World Migratory Bird Day dates