Statement by Ms. Patricia Zurita on World Migratory Bird Day 2021

This year perhaps more than any other, the silences imposed by lockdowns and confinement have ironically made us more aware of birds. As we humans made less noise, birds’ own singing has been easier to hear. Singing, flying and soaring, birds are now in the midst of one of their semi-annual magnificent migratory seasons as millions of them around the globe head north along one of their global flyways to breed.

The BirdLife family in nearly every nation will be counting, taking photographs, and raising conservation funding and awareness during the events of this spring's World Migratory Bird Day and Global Big Day. We look forward to celebrating together, knowing that the pandemic reinforces the warnings that birds convey to us about the risks and effects of our gluttonous and unsustainable consumption of nature. As a flock, we must reverse course if we are to survive. We know that together we can make it happen.