May 8: World Migratory Bird Day

Wherever you are in the world on Saturday 8th May, we hope you will join us to mark World Migratory Bird Day, and celebrate the ever-inspiring miracle of migration by doing something enjoyable and valuable.
Sadly, throughout the world, migratory birds not only face the perilous challenges of the journeys they take to and from their breeding grounds, but also encounter the human menace of illegal hunting and trapping along their flyways. To help tackle this, BirdLife International has joined forces with Global Birding, eBird and Swarovski Optik to encourage participation in the world’s largest citizen science event – Global Big Day – powered by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird citizen science programme.

We invite you to celebrate with us by reporting the birds you see on 8th May, wherever you may be. By joining a birdwatching team, you will help raise vital funds for BirdLife’s work tackling the illegal killing of birds, while contributing useful citizen science data on the status of birds in your country. Last year more than 50,000 birders from 175 countries took part in Global Big Day, submitting more than 120,000 eBird checklists and setting a new world record for participation. Contributors submitted 2.1 million observations covering an extraordinary 6,479 species, and we hope that these totals will be surpassed again this May.