Today is the “INTERNATIONAL DAY OF MIGRATING BIRDS” – an international ecological holiday, which is celebrated twice a year – in October and May. In the months in which seasonal bird migrations occur.

In spring, this holiday is usually celebrated on the second Saturday of May. The historical prerequisite for the establishment of this Day was the International Convention for the Protection of Birds, signed in 1906, to which Russia joined in 1927. However, the holiday itself came from North America: it was there, in 1993, that the ornithologists of the American Cornell laboratory became its initiators.

The purpose of this holiday is to draw attention to the need to protect and protect migratory birds, which are threatened by many dangers in the modern world. Globally, one in eight bird species is threatened with extinction, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

About 1,800 of the 11,000 bird species travel huge distances every year, for example, flying more than 11,000 kilometers between Alaska and New Zealand. There are many dangers along the way. Habitat loss associated with changes in agriculture and global warming, as well as increased poaching, are leading to a decline in migratory bird populations. There are many countries on the way of their migration, so problems can only be solved together.