World Migratory Bird Day
Shared Spaces: Creating Bird-friendly Cities and
Communities
Spanish
Día Mundial de las Aves Migratorias
Espacios compartidos: creando ciudades y
comunidades amigables con las aves
French
Journée mondiale des oiseaux migrateurs
Espaces partagés: Créer des villes et des
communautés accueillantes pour les oiseaux
Portuguese
Dia Mundial das Aves Migratórias
Espaços compartilhados: criando cidades e
comunidades amigas das aves
Russian
Всемирный день перелетных птиц
Общие пространства: создание благоприятных
для птиц городов и сообществ
Arabic
اليوم العالمي للطيور المهاجرة
المساحات المشتركة: إنشاء مدن ومجتمعات محلية مالئمة
للطيور
Chinese
世界候鸟日
共享空间:创建鸟类友好型城市与社区
Kiswahili
Siku ya Ndege Wanaohamahama Duniani
Maeneo ya pamoja: Kukuza miji na jamii zinazojali
ndege
World Migratory Bird Day 2025 promotes the importance of a healthy coexistence between humans and birds by focusing on creating bird-friendly communities and cities. The campaign will raise awareness about the challenges migratory birds face due to human activities and urban development, promoting conservation and the creation of bird-friendly environments within our made-made communities. It will advocate for various actions from citizens, such as planting native flowers and gardens and transforming urban areas into sanctuaries for migratory birds. Additionally, it will promote local and global collaboration in urban planning to incorporate green and blue spaces and other bird-friendly practices. World Migratory Bird Day 2025 will offer practical steps for communities and individuals to support migratory birds and reduce the man-made threats they face in our urben environments and communities.
Key Messages
Whether in the city or the countryside, all communities can support migratory birds by adopting bird-friendly practices. These include creating healthy habitats, implementing effective anti-collision measures, reducing pollution, and providing ample food sources for birds.
Urban expansion can lead to habitat loss if not well planned, and cause a decline in bird nesting and feeding areas, food sources and shelter, jeopardizing the survival of migratory birds.
Non-native species such as domestic cats and non-native plants, disrupt ecosystems by introducing new predators and competition for resources that birds need to survive.
Fatal collisions with buildings and glass are worsened by light pollution from city structures, reflections that confuse birds, and large frameless building designs. Weather conditions like fog and rain can reduce birds' visibility of urban structures, raising the risk of collisions with buildings that aren't designed to be bird-friendly.
We can work together to improve the safety of our cities and communities for birds. By collaborating with neighbors, schools, and local organizations, we can educate our communities about migrating birds. This knowledge and collaboration helps create and restore habitats that meet the needs of birds in order to protect them.
Sustainable city planning prevents urban sprawl and creates interconnected green and blue spaces that provide essential habitats for migratory birds to nest, refuel and find shelter. It is important not only to enhance existing cities but also to prioritize proactive strategies for developing sustainable urban environments from the ground up.
Global cooperation and collaboration are essential. Just as birds migrate across borders, we need to work together internationally and create safe stopover spots along their routes, which traverse countries, borders, mountains, deserts, cities, farms, and seas.
We need to bring nature back into our cities and communities by reintroducing native plants and by adapting development to better support natural environments. Human activities and artificial landscapes contribute to biodiversity loss and the decline of migratory bird populations, which ultimately harms our ecosystem and ourselves.
We all have a part to play in supporting migratory birds! Whether it’s reducing pesticides at home or working with policymakers and city planners, we can all get involved and promote bird conservation together.
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Author
World Migratory Bird Day is an Annual Global Celebration
World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) is an annual awareness-raising campaign highlighting the need for the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats. It has a global outreach and is an effective tool to help raise global awareness of the threats faced by migratory birds, their ecological importance, and the need for international cooperation to conserve them.
Every year people around the world take action and organize public events such as bird festivals, education programmes, exhibitions and bird-watching excursions to celebrate WMBD. All these activities can also be undertaken at any time on the year because that countries or regions observing the peak of migrations at different times, but the main days for the international celebrations on the second Saturday in May and in October.