National Bird Day

National Bird Day is a holiday created by the Avian Welfare Coalition for the benefit of birds worldwide, placing a spotlight on bird welfare and survival. It is celebrated on January 5 each year.

Celebrate your love of birds by taking part in bird conservation activities on National Bird Day. You can find out more about this special day by learning the answers to these frequently asked questions.

When is National Bird Day?

Bird lovers celebrate National Bird Day on January 5 each year.

FAQ

Here are some frequently asked questions with answers about the holiday.

What are other holidays similar to National Bird Day?

Bird Day – May 4
International Migratory Bird Day – Second Saturday in May (U.S. & Canada), Second Saturday in October (Mexico, Central & South America, Caribbean)
World Migratory Bird Day – Second Saturday in May

What is the National Bird Day website?

You can learn more about bird conservation efforts and National Bird Day at the organization’s website at nationalbirdday.com.

How do I celebrate National Bird Day?

Nature lovers and bird watchers alike can make the most of National Bird Day by taking part in one or more of the following activities:

Take the pledge – By signing the National Bird Day Pledge, you agree to learn about, appreciate, and support the conservation of captive and wild birds. You can take the pledge at ndb2020.paperform.co.

Educate others – Share what you’ve learned about the plight of endangered birds with others, including teaching children the importance of bird conservation.

Support a charity – Contribute your time, make a donation, or sign up for a bird adoption at a bird rescue or sanctuary. Examples that can be found online include bird conservation organizations like Hatched to Fly Free, the American Bird Conservancy, and the Indonesian Parrot Project.

Build a birdhouse – Put your crafty side to work on a birdhouse that will provide a shelter and nesting site for your backyard friends.

Take a trip – Do some bird watching in the field. Take along a birding guide so you can identify different species. A good choice for birdwatching in the field is the Sibley Guide to Birds.

Read a book – Bird books like The Birds of America by John James Audubon serve as a great introduction to the world of birds.

Feed the birds – Fill your bird feeder with natural seeds and grains to help all your fine, feathered friends get through the winter.

History of National Bird Day

National Bird Day was created in 2002 by a coalition of the Avian Welfare Coalition and Born Free USA to increase awareness and support of bird conservation efforts worldwide.

The coalition’s stated goal is to reduce the suffering of birds by raising public awareness of the cruel treatment of birds in commerce and captivity.

Threats to the well-being of wild and captive birds include:

illegal trade practices of birds,
avian diseases,
habitat loss due to climate change and human interference, and
lack of public awareness of bird conservation practices

Fun facts about birds

More Americans (73 million) are birdwatchers than play baseball and football combined, according to the U.S. Census.

Birders support the economy by spending $40 billion annually on their hobby, including feeding, equipment, traveling, and donations.

There are 9,800 different species of birds globally; 850 of them can be seen in the United States.

National Bird Day takes place at the end of the three-week-long Christmas Bird Count, the annual survey that tracks America’s wild birds to get an accurate bird population to count.

According to Born Free USA, nearly 12% of the world’s bird population is in danger of extinction.

Birds play an important role in the conservation of nature’s ecosystems. They are natural seed distributors, and their diet of insects helps control tree and crop damage worldwide.

Bird captions for Instagram

The bird is the word!
A rare bird!
The early bird catches the worm.
Fly away.
Ugly duckling.
Swan song.
Feather your nest.
A lame duck.
Fox in the henhouse.
As the crow flies.
On Eagles’ wings.
Happy as a lark.
Sitting ducks.
Eager Beaver.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
A birder forever…
A bird’s eye view.
Getting my ducks in a row.
A wild goose chase.
Eat crow!
Like a duck to water.
Night Owls Anonymous.
Your goose is cooked.
Proud as a peacock.
Free as a bird.

Idioms involving birds

Crazy as a loon.
I’m like a bird, I wanna fly away.
Eat like a bird.
Bird-brained.
Yardbird.
Taking him under my wing.
A little Birdie told me.
Skinny as a rail.
Boo-birds.
A bird in the hand…
The early bird catches the worm.
Snowbirds.
Flush out the bird.
Strictly for the birds.
Birds of a feather flock together.
Kill two birds with one stone.
A strange bird.
Feathered friends.
Free as a bird!
Eagle eye!

National Bird Day social media hashtags

Be sure to include these hashtags on your social media posts showing your National Bird Day activities:

#NationalBirdDay
#DoBetter4Birds
#MoreBeautifulWild
#BirdsAreBeautiful
#Birding

Bird quotes

In order to see birds, it is necessary to become a part of the silence.
Robert Lynd

The early bird gets the worm.
Aesop

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
William Blake

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Willie Nelson

Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her; still, she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.
Victor Hugo

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.
E. E. Cummings

The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.
J.M. Barrie

My writing often contains souvenirs of the day—a song I heard, a bird I saw—which I then put into the novel.
Amy Tan

Birds were created to record everything. They were not designed just to be beautiful jewels in the sky but to serve as the eyes of heaven.
Suzy Kassem

I’m youth; I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.
James M. Barrie

Heavenly bodies are nests of invisible birds.
Dejan Stojanovic

Check out this page on Eagle, Owls, and Crows quotes

Stephen King’s Quote on Birds

Some birds are not meant to be caged, that’s all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them, they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.
Stephen King

Inspirational Bird Quotations

Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?
David Attenborough

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
Langston Hughes

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still, and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.
Maya Angelou

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
C. S. Lewis

If you cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen.
Nikita Khrushchev

The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing.
Eric Berne

The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy onto the top of the wall, and he opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill merely to show off. Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off — and they are nearly always doing it.
Frances Hodgson Burnett

Every bird, every tree, and every flower reminds me what a blessing and privilege it is just to be alive.
Marty Rubin

Bird Sayings

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

And if I stay here with you, girl, Things just couldn’t even be the same ’cause I’m as free as a bird now, And this bird you cannot change.
Lynyrd Skynyrd

You cannot fly like an eagle with the wings of a wren.
William Henry Hudson

She decided to free herself, dance into the wind, and create a new language. And birds fluttered around her, writing “yes” in the sky.
Monique Duval

And the eagle flies with the dove. And if you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with.
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

The stork is voiceless because there is really nothing to say.
Will Cuppy

Small birds throw seeds out of the feeder; large birds pick them up off the ground, but the squirrels try to muscle in.
Lilian Jackson Braun

By Emily Ryan

Emily writes about nature, animals, and family.

Etcetera

You’re on our National Bird Day – January 5 page.