World Migratory Bird Day
World Migratory Bird Day
Bonn/Boulder/Incheon, 18 December 2025 - The global Partners behind World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) are excited to announce the theme for 2026: “Every Bird Counts – Your Observations Matter!” highlighting the important role of community science (also referred to as citizen science) for the conservation of migratory birds.
The 2026 campaign shines a spotlight on people-driven efforts that are essential for bird conservation and science, celebrating how individuals, communities, and organizations around the world are helping to build the knowledge base to better conserve migratory birds across borders.
By focusing on the contribution of individuals, participatory science and public bird monitoring efforts, the campaign will celebrate the millions of bird enthusiasts around the world that are contributing to the data and knowledge that inform policy decisions and are essential for bird conservation - through each recorded observation.
From backyard observations to coordinated global surveys, millions of people around the world contribute vital information about migratory birds, their habitats, and the challenges they face each year. Through these recorded observations, people are engaging in community / citizen science that helps track migration patterns, population trends, and changes in habitats across flyways. The campaign will showcase how every observation contributes essential data and supports evidence-based conservation at local, national, and international scales.
When people take part in bird counting activities that help gather this important data, they also strengthen their connection to nature, deepen their understanding of the pressures facing birds, and often become stewards of nature protection, strengthening society’s engagement with nature.
This year’s theme is particularly meaningful as it recognizes the many community science projects along all of the world’s major flyways. We will be focusing on the monitoring initiatives and platforms that already exist to record bird observations in ways that support both science and policy. World Migratory Bird Day 2026 also coincides with the 60th Anniversary of the International Waterbird Census, an opportunity to celebrate this global effort to monitor and protect migratory waterbirds as well as promote other community and citizen science initiatives across all flyways of the world. By encouraging people to gather observations from across migratory routes, we can build a clearer picture of the “story of the flyways,” emphasizing connectivity, international collaboration, and our collective responsibility.
You can get involved in conservation-focused projects that contribute to long-term monitoring and research, such as community science programs, coordinated bird counts, or public events that build awareness of how sustained data collection supports migratory birds. Even small, regular observations can add value when they are part of a larger, ongoing effort to track populations over time. However you choose to participate, thoughtful and consistent engagement helps strengthen the science that informs conservation policy across the world’s flyways. World Migratory Bird Day 2026 will take place on 9 May and 10 October, recognizing that migration occurs at different times in the northern and southern hemispheres and is part of a repeating annual cycle. The partners behind World Migratory Bird Day look forward to working closely with all interested stakeholders, external partners, governments, organizations, and communities across all flyways to amplify this message and continue using World Migratory Bird Day as a way to raise awareness and conservation action for migratory birds across borders.
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.