Today, May 12, is World Migratory Bird Day

The World Migratory Bid Day is a two-day programme observed on the second weekend of the month of May to highlight the urgency to protect migratory birds and their habitats. This year, it is on May 12 & 13.

The first ever World Migratory Bird Day was, however, launched on April 8-9, 2006. The event was organised to raise awareness about birds' migration, an interesting phenomenon of nature, and on their conservation. Migratory birds face threat to their existence from various sources today and it becomes all the more important to put up joint efforts to protect this ecologically significant event. This necessity makes the International Migratory Day all the more relevant.

It has been seen that the total number of events organised and registered on the World Migratory Bird Day has increased across the planet which shows how much importance the occasion has received in public imagination. The events include education programmes, bird festivals and excursions for bird watching.

The United Nations has also come forward to support the awareness campaign though it is not a public holiday.

The events about raising awareness about migratory birds are also organised in different countries in different times of the year as seasons of migration differ but yet the second Saturday of May is considered the main date for the international celebrations.

On this day, many national parks across the world specially observe the occasion by organising events like bird watching and exhibition and crafts to raise public awareness.

In 2018, the theme of the World Migratory Bird Day is "Unifying our Voices for Bird Conservation" which underlines the need for people observing the day to communicate with each other and share knowledge - across national border. The occasion this year is unifying Earth's major migratory bird corridors: the African-Eurasian corridor; the East Asian-Australasian and the Americas corridor.

Two thousand species of birds are known to make regular seasonal migration.