Bird awareness days
There are a number of bird awareness days during the year, so here's a round up:
5 January – National Bird Day
The day is held to raise awareness of themillions of birds who are captured from the wild or produced in captivity for profit or human amusement and then who live in conditions which don’t meet their needs. Find out more
6 January - mid February - RSPB Big School Birdwatch
This is the RSPB’s birdwatch for schools and it runs from early January, after the children come back from school, through to the UK’s February half term (usually about the middle of February). It gives teachers an excellent chance to get the kids outside and to discover all about wildlife, and the good news for teachers who don’t know their swallow from their chaffinch, is that there are lots of resources online for you. Find out more
26 - 28 January - RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch
This takes place every year over the last weekend of January – take an hour and sit and watch birds in your garden or local park. All you need to do is count the number of species which land in the area you’re observing and then report the results online to the RSPB – you need to register but it’s free to do this and quick. It helps the RSPB find out which species are doing well and which need some focused help, and in 2023, over half a million people took part. Find out more
Find out how to save our wild isles
Image © RSPB
February 2 – World Wetlands Day
Wetlands are home to a huge number of our birds, such as waders, and this is a chance to find out why wetlands are so important to birds such as ducks, geese, swans, cranes (who are making a come back in Suffolk)… The WWT says that wetlands act as service stations for those birds migrating so that they have a chance to stop, rest and refresh themselves along the way. Find out more
February 14 – 21 – National Nestbox Week
The chance to give birds a nestbox in your garden. The website will show you how to choose a great nestbox, where to put it, how to look after it – and even how to make your own! Find out more and find out what types of boxes birds prefer!
Water for wildlife matters - the RSPB has bird baths
and a pond liner if you want to make your own wildlife pond!
16 - 19 February – Great Backyard Bird Count
The Count is asking us all to spend time in your favourite place, watching and counting as many birds as you can see and reporting them to the count. It will help scientists understand global bird populations before one of their annual migrations. The Count was launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society. Birds Canada joined in 2009 and in 2013, it became a global project when data was entered into eBird – it’s the largest biodiversity-related citizen science project in the world! Find out more here
13 May – World Migratory Bird Day
14 October – World Migratory Bird Day
The focus for these two days in 2023 is water, how important it is to migrating birds and it will identify key actions for protecting water resources and aquatic ecosystems. Unfortunately, the human demand for water is increasing – and pollution and climate change are having an impact, and this affects migrating birds. This is a good opportunity to discover how far some birds fly – some make some incredible jouneys of thousands of miles. Find out more
Find out about wetlands birds from the WWT
And there are days dedicated to specific birds, such as:
20 March – World Sparrow Day
21 April – World Curlew Day
31 May – World Parrot Day #WORLDPARROTDAY
7 June – World Swift Day #WorldSwiftDay
19 June – World Albatross Day – the theme in 2023 was Plastic Pollution
4 August – International Owl Awareness Day - The British Trust for Ornithology has some great information about owls. Find out more here
21 December - National Robin Day - a campaign by SongBird Survival #NationalRobinDay | #RobinsarentjustforChristmas