Community Science Takes Centre Stage on World Migratory Bird Day
From tracking rare shorebirds to recording swallow nests, public observations are strengthening migratory bird conservation across the world
Bonn/Boulder/Incheon, Tuesday 6 October 2026 – On Saturday, 10 October 2026, World Migratory Bird Day will mark its second annual celebration of the year, recognising the invaluable contributions of the people whose observations help scientists and conservationists understand bird migration, track population changes and identify important sites across the world’s flyways.
Under the theme “Every Bird Counts – Your Observations Matter!,” the 2026 campaign highlights the role of community science, also referred to as citizen science, in migratory bird conservation. By reporting a marked bird, sharing a sighting through a citizen science app, participating in an established community science project or taking part in local surveys, people around the world are providing valuable information that supports research, conservation and policy. Anyone can help improve our knowledge of birds.
Online apps provide especially accessible and inclusive tools for contributing observations, allowing people to participate from wherever they are and in ways that fit their interests, experience and available time.
Because migratory birds cross countries, continents and the ocean, understanding their movements requires observations from many locations over long periods. Community and citizen science extend the reach of monitoring efforts, helping reveal changes in migration patterns, population trends, habitat conditions and threats.
Nine migratory bird species have been selected as ambassadors for this year’s campaign: Cinnamon Teal, Merlin, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Barn Swallow, American Oystercatcher, Pied Oystercatcher, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Spoon-billed Sandpiper and the Abdim’s Stork.
Tracking the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Across Its Flyway
The Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea) is a tiny, Critically Endangered shorebird that breeds in the Arctic tundra of northeastern Russia and migrates to coastal areas of South and Southeast Asia. Its survival depends on a chain of wetlands along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway.
The International Single Species Action Plan for the Conservation of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper 2025–2035 developed under the East Asian–Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) shows how local monitoring contributes to a coordinated flyway-wide effort. Annual monitoring is taking place at many key sites, often led by local groups. With only around 350–550 Spoon-billed Sandpipers remaining, every sighting of a marked or unmarked bird is particularly valuable. Careful recording of leg flags or bird rings – brightly coloured bands around a bird’s leg with a unique code to support individual monitoring – is helping refine estimates of the species’ global population size and trend.
More than 2,000 sightings have so far been submitted to the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Taskforce sightings reporter database. People can also participate in initiatives such as the International Waterbird Census (IWC) to contribute to broader information about the wetlands on which the species depends.
Local conservation groups in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Russia and Thailand help protect and monitor important habitats for this species. In Bangladesh and Myanmar, some groups include former hunters who monitor hunting trends and support shorebird protection. This is particularly important because the species continues to decline, with hunting and habitat loss remaining major threats.
Recording Barn Swallows Close to Home
Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) live in close proximity to people and often build their distinctive mud nests on buildings, bridges and homes. Because these nests are so visible, members of the public can help monitor the species’ breeding activity by recording nests and sightings. Across the Americas, a growing network of people interested in science and nature is doing exactly that, with as many as 2,000 people gathering data along 3,000 routes surveyed by the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS).
Data from the BBS, a long-term and long-running, volunteer-driven community science programme, shows that Barn Swallow populations have declined by an estimated 38% to 44% across North America since 1966. The losses have been especially severe in Canada, where the BBS documented a 68.6% decline between 1970 and 2019. This species is listed as Threatened under Canada’s Species at Risk Act.
That population picture is strengthened by sustained public participation over time. NestWatch combines contemporary observations with historical nest-record cards dating back to 1965. From 2019 to 2021, 10,915 people participated in the crowdsourced transcription initiative Nest Quest Go!, helping digitize thousands of historical nest records and expanding the long-term dataset available for research.
Across NestWatch’s historical database, volunteers have logged more than 15,000 Barn Swallow nest attempts.
Mapping Abdim’s Stork Across Southern Africa
The Abdim’s Stork (Ciconia abdimii) – a migratory waterbird listed on the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) – often breeds in iconic Baobab trees and other large trees within or near villages, from Mali in West Africa to the southwestern Arabian Peninsula and East Africa. During the non-breeding season, it migrates to East and southern Africa. Citizen science supports ongoing research and fills monitoring gaps for this species.
Long-term initiatives like the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2) showcase this impact through a dedicated network in which approximately 5,000 registered citizen scientists, with about 500 active contributors, regularly submit distribution records for various species, including 241 records for the Abdim’s Stork alone in 2026.
How to Take Part in Community Science
World Migratory Bird Day encourages people to join established community-science projects and follow their monitoring methods so that observations can support research and conservation. The WMBD 2026 Campaign Toolkit, available in English, Spanish and French, explains how people can participate.
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Quotes from the Main Partners of the World Migratory Bird Day Campaign
“For generations, people have helped deepen our understanding of bird migration by sharing what they see in nature. Today, digital platforms and community science initiatives are bringing these observations together on an unprecedented scale, creating a powerful crowdsourced resource for scientists and conservationists. This global effort is informing conservation action across borders and throughout entire flyways. Every observation counts, helping to ensure that future generations can continue to benefit from the immense value that migratory birds bring to our world.” – Andy Raine, Executive Secretary, Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS)
“The Abdim’s Stork, an AEWA-listed species featured on this year’s World Migratory Bird Day poster, is one of many migratory waterbird species being documented through citizen science work across the African-Eurasian flyways. As we celebrate World Migratory Bird Day and the 60th anniversary of the International Waterbird Census, we pay tribute not only to the tens of thousands of volunteers contributing to this remarkable global monitoring effort, but also to the many people participating in other citizen science initiatives, such as bird atlases, across Africa, Eurasia and along all the world’s flyways. Their observations provide essential data that contribute to status assessments and influence policy decisions under AEWA, reminding us that every bird counts and every observation matters.” – Sergey Dereliev, Acting Executive Secretary, Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA)
“A single observation, a bird with a tiny colour ring seen on a beach, a band recorded during a morning birdwatch, a flock counted on a winter wetland—can unlock a story of migration that spans countries and cultures. Each observation becomes a thread of knowledge that connects places, people, and ecosystems across the globe.” – Jennifer George, Chief Executive, East Asian–Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP)
“Migratory birds connect some of the largest landscapes on Earth, traveling across mountains, forests, grasslands, wetlands, coastlines and cities as they move between breeding and wintering grounds. Along these vast journeys, they depend on countless places to rest, habitats where they feed and raise their young, and the places where they spend the non-breeding season. They also depend on people who help protect those places. Every contribution to community science adds to our understanding of these journeys and helps build the knowledge we need to conserve birds across their entire range and throughout their life cycles. When people contribute along the way, we become part of the journey too.” – Susan Bonfield, Executive Director, Environment for the Americas (EFTA)
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About World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD)
World Migratory Bird Day is an international educational and awareness-raising campaign that promotes conservation efforts for migratory birds and their journeys across borders.
The campaign is organised and coordinated by a global network of partners whose work focuses on the conservation of migratory birds across the world’s various flyways: the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), the East Asian–Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) and Environment for the Americas (EFTA).
Celebrated on two days each year (in 2026, on 9 May and 10 October) to reflect the cyclical nature of bird migration and the varying peak migration periods in the northern and southern hemispheres, World Migratory Bird Day triggers hundreds of educational events around the world, united by their common goal of raising awareness and advocating for international bird protection.
Each year the campaign features a central theme, prompts action and coordinates global efforts to safeguard migratory birds and their habitats. To find World Migratory Bird Day events near you, access educational and conservation resources, register your own events and learn how to get involved, visit www.worldmigratorybirdday.org
About the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS)
The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) is a legally binding international treaty under the United Nations. CMS is one of the most important global frameworks for wildlife conservation and plays a vital role in addressing the global biodiversity crisis.
By fostering international collaboration, supporting research, and developing conservation agreements and actions among the Range States in which these species are found, CMS ensures the long-term survival of migratory species of wild animals and their habitats, and the vital benefits they provide.
132 countries plus the European Union are Parties to CMS. In addition, several non-Party countries have signed one or more binding CMS Agreements to protect migratory species. Learn more at www.cms.int
About the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA)
The Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) is an inter-governmental treaty dedicated to the conservation of migratory waterbirds that migrate along the African-Eurasian flyways. The Agreement covers 255 species of birds ecologically dependent on wetlands for at least part of their annual cycle. To date, a total of 84 countries and the European Union have acceded to the environmental treaty, which has a geographic range covering 119 countries across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, Greenland, and the Canadian Archipelago. Learn more at www.unep-aewa.org
About the East Asian–Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP)
The EAAFP is an international Partnership established in 2006 to provide a framework to promote dialogue, cooperation, and collaboration to conserve migratory waterbirds and their habitats in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. It is also a Ramsar Regional Initiative. A unique element of the Partnership is its mission to build a chain of internationally important sites for these birds as they migrate across the 22 countries of the Flyway. These countries have the greatest species density on earth yet have the highest number of vulnerable migratory birds. Over 40 Partners work together across borders to make a difference for them. For more information, visit www.eaaflyway.net
About Environment for the Americas (EFTA)
Environment for the Americas connects people to nature and birds through research, education, and outreach. At the heart of our efforts lies the coordination of World Migratory Bird Day across the Americas, an initiative that engages people of all ages in the protection of our shared migratory birds. This work has also led to the development of our internship programmes, which provide unique opportunities for the next generation of researchers, conservationists, and natural resource professionals.
Through these programmes, we are empowering young people to make a tangible difference for the environment. EFTA’s efforts have also spurred international collaborations for bird conservation and facilitated changes across borders that ensure a future where migratory birds are protected and celebrated. Learn more at www.environmentamericas.org
RELATED LINKS
- Press and Social Media Kit
- Campaign Toolkit and Key Messages in English, Spanish and French
- World Migratory Bird Day global website
- Statements from UN and non-UN partners
- World Migratory Bird Day Event Map
SOCIAL MEDIA
- Facebook: WorldMigratoryBirdDay
- Instagram: @worldmigratorybirdday
- X: @WMBD
- Hashtags: #WorldMigratoryBirdDay #WMBD2026 #YourObservationsMatter #EveryBirdCounts
PRESS CONTACTS
For general information and expert interviews, please contact:
Florian Keil, Coordinator of the World Migratory Bird Day Campaign / Information Officer at the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, Tel: +49 (0) 228 8152451, press@cms.int
For specific questions on the Americas flyway, please contact:
Susan Bonfield, Executive Director at Environment for the Americas, Tel: +001 970-393-1183, sbonfield@environmentamericas.org
For specific questions on the East Asian–Australasian flyway, please contact:
Minjae Baek, Communications Officer at the East Asian–Australasian Flyway Partnership, Tel: +82 32 458 6504, communication@eaaflyway.net
