Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day 2025!

By Mary Beth Nevulis, Louisville Audubon Society Board of Directors

World Migratory Bird Day is being celebrated this spring on May 10, 2025.

The theme this year is “Shared Spaces: Creating Bird-Friendly Cities and Communities.” There are actions everyone can take to protect our shared spaces with wildlife, create bird-friendly cities and communities, and adapt environments that support migratory bird populations across all communities—from bustling cities to smaller towns and communities. 

Bird-friendly practices include creating healthy habitats, reducing bird collisions with buildings and glass, reducing pollution, and providing ample food sources for birds. 

No matter what type of community you live in, you can choose to help birds!

Create bird-friendly communities: 8 easy tips 

• When it comes to plants, go native: Plant native species of trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and grasses. Native plants provide food for native birds, pollinators, and other beneficial insects. Check out Audubon’s Plants for Birds guide for what to plant in our area. 
• Make your home bird-friendly and bird-safe: Take steps to treat your windows to reduce building collisions. Check out some low-cost products we recommend.
• Go lights out during peak migration months: Turn off lights between dawn and dusk, especially during fall and spring migration seasons.
• Leave your leaves alone: Insects (aka bird food!) rely on the habitat that fallen leaves provide, especially over the winter months. Dead leaves also decompose creating compost that can improve soil structure and fertility.
• If you own a rural property: Encourage fencerows, un-mowed ditches, and natural areas to help feed and provide habitat for birds.
• If you live in an apartment: Plant native plants in balcony pots or window boxes to help feed the insects that birds eat and feed their young.
• Avoid use of chemicals: Discontinue using pesticides and herbicides, which kill insects and the plants that many birds rely on for food.
• Get outside: Grab a pair of binoculars and go birding—whether it’s at a World Migratory Bird Day event or any other time of year. You’d be surprised what you can find in your own neighborhood or backyard.

Why this year’s World Migratory Bird Day theme matters

Urban expansion and man-made environments, if not managed properly, pose significant threats to these birds, leading to habitat loss and increasing the risks like fatal collisions with buildings and glass. 

WMBD 2025 aims to emphasize that every community—from urban to rural and everything in between—can play a significant role in supporting migratory birds. 

Through good city planning—and by adopting bird-friendly practices like creating healthy habitats, reducing pollution, and preventing collisions with glass windows and other built objects—we all can contribute to the well-being of migratory birds. 

And by working together, citizens and elected officials alike can help our natural environments and lessen the negative effects of urbanization on biodiversity.