This year, on 10 October United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) World Migratory Bird Day is celebrated. The World Migratory Bird Day 2020 website states:
On Saturday, 9 May 2020, people around the world will celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) – a global campaign dedicated to raising awareness of migratory birds and the need for international cooperation to conserve them. This year the theme of World Migratory Bird Day is “Birds Connect Our World” and was chosen to highlight the importance of conserving and restoring the ecological connectivity and integrity of ecosystems that support the natural cycles that are essential for the survival and well-being of migratory birds.
World Migratory Bird Day will be celebrated by people across the world on Saturday, 9 May with the theme “Birds Connect Our World”. The UN-led campaign aims to raise awareness of migratory birds and the importance of international cooperation to conserve them. It is organized by a collaborative partnership among two UN treaties – the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) – and the Colorado-based non-profit organization, Environment for the Americas (EFTA).
The Thammasat University Library owns several books about migratory birds, their habitats and conservation issues.
As the UNEP website explains,
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.
Connecting Events with a Global Campaign and Theme
World Migratory Bird Day activities take place in many different countries and places across the globe – united by a common campaign and theme. If you are interested in organizing an event to mark WMBD, register your planned activity. In this way, individual events can be shared with others around the world and help inspire them to take action too. Find out how you can participate.
Avian migration is a natural miracle. Migratory birds fly hundreds and thousands of kilometres to find the best ecological conditions and habitats for feeding, breeding and raising their young. When conditions at breeding sites become unfavourable, it is time to fly to regions where conditions are better.
There are many different migration patterns. The majority of birds migrate from northern breeding areas to southern wintering grounds. However, some birds breed in southern parts of Africa and migrate to northern wintering grounds, or horizontally, to enjoy the milder coastal climates in winter. Other birds reside on lowlands during the winter months and move up a mountain for the summer…
Migratory birds have the perfect morphology and physiology to fly fast and across long It is truly amazing how migratory birds can navigate with pin-point accuracy. Exactly how migrating birds find their flyways is not fully understood. It has been shown that they are able to orientate by the sun during the day, by the stars at night, and by the geomagnetic field at any time. Some species can even detect polarized light, which many migrating birds may use for navigation at night.
Why Migratory Birds Need Protection
Migration is a perilous journey and involves a wide range of threats, often caused by human activities. And as diverse as people and their habits in different countries are, so are threats the birds face. As migratory birds depend on a range of sites along their distribution area, the loss of wintering and stopover sites could have a dramatic impact on the birds’ chances of survival.
Flying long distances involves crossing many borders between countries with differing environmental politics, legislation and conservation measures. It is evident that international cooperation among governments, NGOs and other stakeholders is required along the entire flyway of a species in order to share knowledge and to coordinate conservation efforts…
In March, it was announced how the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic will influence WMBD celebrations.
Even if group activities for humans must be postponed in many part of the world, this year’s WMDB theme, Birds Connect Our World,
was chosen to highlight the importance of conserving and restoring the ecological connectivity and integrity of ecosystems that support the natural movements of migratory birds and that are essential for their survival and well-being.
Ecological Connectivity and its importance
Connectivity is essential for migratory species, and important for a wide variety of ecological functions. It describes the natural and necessary movement of species and the flow of natural processes that sustain life on Earth. With 1 million species facing the risk of extinction within our generation, connectivity has become a central topic for biodiversity and sustainability. Migratory species move across the globe, running, swimming, or in the case of birds flying, connecting countries, people and continents through their migration routes. This migration can only be accomplished when animals are able to access the different sites and habitats that they rely upon along their pathways. These pathways transcend national borders, national plans and conservation priorities of any single country. Migratory birds connect countries and their conservation requires cooperation between countries and across national boundaries.
Connectivity and Birds
The flyways used by migratory birds connect different habitats. Often, these long-haul flight paths cross inhospitable terrain, such as deserts and open seas. Suitable habitats for wintering, as stop-over,staging and breeding sites are crucial for the survival of these birds. The ecological connectivity of these sites is important to the survival of migratory birds, but this it is being threatened by habitat loss and degradation. The loss or degradation of a critical stop-over site for migratory birds can have a devastating effect on the survival chances of migratory birds and lead to a defragmentation that can have a devastating effect on populations. Other threats, such as poisoning, unsustainable use, collisions with man-made objects and climate change are also having a negative impact on migratory birds around the world.
World Migratory Bird Day 2020 will therefore help raise awareness on the importance of ecological connectivity for migratory birds and complement the efforts of CMS to promote ecological connectivity and functionality, international cooperation and the conservation of migratory species within the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.
Habitat Issues
Unsustainable agricultural practices and infrastructural pressures are causing habitats of migratory species to shrink. Migratory birds rely on their natural habitats for food, shelter and nesting. With 1/3 of the Earth’s surface being used for agriculture, unsustainable farming becomes an impactful threat to the survival of migratory birds. Not only does it encroach on their food and shelter, but the use of pesticides can be dangerous, and sometimes fatal, for migratory birds. Furthermore, stop-over-sites have seen increased competition, especially where bird densities are high and food supplies have depleted. As stop over sites continue to be exposed to degradation and human expansion, this competition is likely to increase, harming migratory birds greatly.
Flight Path Issues
Collisions with artificial man-made structures have posed a threat to over 350 species of migratory birds, especially those flying at night. Structures made of glass and other reflective material can cause the death of more birds than almost any other human-related mortality factor. Increased building of wind turbines in flight paths (especially near wetlands), and expanded powerlines near sites where birds congregate have also resulted in high bird mortality rates.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)