World Migratory Bird Day 2020: Birds Connect Our World

New Delhi, May 8: World Migratory Bird Day will be celebrated by people across the world on Saturday, May 9 to draw attention to the issue of well-being of migratory birds even as they face problems of loss of habitat, climate change, poisoning, and illegal killing. This year's theme for the World Migratory Bird Day is “Birds Connect Our World” which underscores 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.

“Migratory birds can be found everywhere: in cities and in the countryside, in parks and in our backyards, in forests and in mountains, in deserts and in wetlands, and all along the shores. They connect to all of these habitats, and they connect us and the places where we live to people and places around the globe,” said Amy Fraenkel, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). Flamingos in Mumbai: Beautiful Migratory Birds Arrive in The City, Know Where You Can Spot Them.

There is a need for protecting the habitat of the migratory birds which crosses the national border for various purposes including breeding, feeding, resting and overwintering. On the occasion, many virtual talks and a wave of social interactions dedicated to migratory birds are expected to take place in many countries, with educational programmes being offered virtually by many organizations including schools, parks, zoos, forests, wildlife refuges, wetlands, museums and libraries.

Approximately 1,800 of the world’s 11,000 bird species migrate, some covering enormous distances, with the Bar-tailed Godwit, for instance, flies 11,680 kilometres between Alaska and New Zealand. More than 350 species of birds migrate to India even as there has been a decline in the number of some of these migratory avian due to various reasons, including pollution of wetland by domestic sewage.

Some of the migratory birds that come to India include Siberian Cranes. Amur Falcon, Greater Flamingo, Demoiselle Crane, Bluethroat, Black Winged Stilt, Blue Tailed Bee Eater and Bar Headed Goose among others.

This urgently requires sufficient networks of sites and appropriate habitats, such as wetlands, coastal areas, forests and grasslands to support migratory birds during their life cycle, enabling them to move and to survive.

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).

World Migratory Bird Day is celebrated on two peak days each year (the second Saturdays of May and October) to highlight the need for international collaboration to ensure the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats globally.

First held in 2006 to promote the conservation of migratory birds and to counteract the negative publicity they were receiving across the world, due to concerns about their role as potential vectors of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) virus subtype H5N1 – now commonly referred to as bird flu. Since then World Migratory Bird Day has gained in popularity with over 2,000 events organized in over 100 countries since the campaign’s inception.

Coming at a time when most of the world’s population is under some form of restricted movement due to the coronavirus, there is an urgent need to protect their natural habitat. Given that there is clear evidence that the destruction of wild areas can facilitate the kinds of infectious diseases the world is now combatting, urgent action to better protect and sustain wildlife and their habitats are needed.

(This article has been sourced from Prasar Bharati News Services as part of Coronavirus coverage)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 08, 2020 09:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).