National Bird Day 2027: January 5, who started it and how to mark it

National Bird Day 2027 is Tuesday, January 5. It falls on January 5 every year. The Avian Welfare Coalition, a US nonprofit that speaks up for parrots and other captive birds, set the date in January 2002. It's an awareness day, not a federal holiday. For birders, January 5 is also the last day of the Christmas Bird Count.

National Bird Day at a glance

Dates and facts checked: October 22–23, 2026.

When is National Bird Day 2027?

On Tuesday, January 5, 2027. The date never moves. The Avian Welfare Coalition, which started the day, lists it simply as “January 5th.”

• The fifth day of the year. New Year's Day 2027 is a Friday, the federal government's calendar shows, so National Bird Day comes on the Tuesday after the first weekend.
• Looking ahead: in 2028, January 5 is a Wednesday.
• The same week as two birding traditions: the first bird of the year on January 1, and the close of the Christmas Bird Count on January 5. More on that below.

What day is National Bird Day 2026?

It was Monday, January 5, 2026. That day, the National Audubon Society marked it with an article noting that National Bird Day was “coinciding with the close of the annual Christmas Bird Count.”

Is January 5th National Bird Day?

Yes, every year. The Avian Welfare Coalition established January 5 as National Bird Day in January 2002, and the date has stayed the same since.

Who started National Bird Day, and why?

The Avian Welfare Coalition, a nonprofit that works for captive birds, established National Bird Day in January 2002 as “a day of action and education for captive birds.” Those are the coalition's own words, from its timeline of 25 years of work. The same timeline says it has spoken up for captive birds since 2000 and became an incorporated nonprofit in Minnesota in October 2002.

• A partner from the start. Born Free USA, an animal protection group, launched the first National Bird Day “in coordination with” the coalition, a resolution of the New York State Senate recorded in 2022. Born Free USA calls it a day to shine a spotlight on the protection and survival of birds, “both captive and wild.”
• The message. The coalition's slogan for the day is “Birds are More Beautiful Wild.” Its campaign aims to “reduce the suffering of birds by raising public awareness of the destructive bird trade.”
• The argument behind it. Exotic birds are not domesticated animals, “even when bred in captivity,” the coalition says. Life in a cage can lead to feather plucking and constant screaming, very few people can meet such a bird's needs, and bird sanctuaries across the country are overwhelmed with unwanted birds.
• What it wants instead. It would replace the demand for birds as pets with a demand for keeping each species safe in the wild.
• An early campaign. In January 2003, as part of National Bird Day, the coalition and the Animal Protection Institute launched a campaign against live bird sales at Petco and PetSmart, its timeline records.

That's the coalition's case. The pet bird business sees things differently, and it has a day of its own in September, set up to celebrate bird ownership (more further down).

Why a budgerigar for National Bird Day?

Because the budgerigar, or budgie, is the pet bird nearly everyone knows, and the plate above shows it as it looks in the wild: green and yellow. In the wild, the Australian Museum says, budgerigars are “small green and yellow parrots, with black barring above.” Since they were first kept in cages, they have been bred into pure white, blue, yellow, mauve, olive and gray.

• Wild flocks. Budgerigars live across much of mainland Australia. After a season of plentiful rain and food, their flocks occasionally number in the tens of thousands, the museum notes, though most are far smaller.
• How the budgie reached Britain. The naturalist John Gould came home from Australia in August 1840, and he is credited with introducing the budgerigar to Britain: he brought back a live pair, the University of Glasgow Library says. “These birds soon became popular as pets.” Gould called them “the most animated, cheerful little creatures you can possibly imagine.”
• The painter. Edward Lear was only 18 when he began a series of paintings of parrots, the Linda Hall Library notes. His Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots came out in 1832 with 42 lithographs, many drawn from life in the gardens of the Zoological Society of London, according to the University of Kansas Libraries. The budgerigar is plate 13, captioned “Undulated Parrakeet.”
• The twist. Most people know Lear for something else entirely. His “lasting claim to fame rests on his nonsense verse and sketches,” the Kansas exhibit says: he is the Edward Lear of the limericks and of “The Owl and the Pussy-cat.”

So the hand that drew this careful, feather-by-feather budgie also sent an owl and a cat to sea in a pea-green boat. Lear drew Bald Eagles too, for Gould. The other painters behind our plates are in our guide to the bird painters.

Is National Bird Day a federal holiday?

No. National Bird Day is an awareness day, not a federal holiday: the federal holidays are set by law, and none of them falls on January 5. The Office of Personnel Management's list for 2027 has 11, from New Year's Day on Friday, January 1, to Christmas Day, under the law that sets them, 5 U.S.C. 6103. The coalition's own page for the day doesn't claim any official status.

• States can mark it. On January 25, 2022, for example, the New York State Senate adopted a resolution asking Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim January 5, 2022, as National Bird Day in New York.
• No day off. Since it isn't a federal holiday, National Bird Day is an ordinary working day.

What is America's national holiday bird day?

No US law makes a national holiday for birds; the best-known bird day is National Bird Day, January 5, an awareness day begun by a nonprofit in 2002. What the law does name is a national bird. A law approved on December 23, 2024, says in one line: “The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is the national bird.” Our Bald Eagle page tells how the Bald Eagle became the national bird, beside a pair of eagles that Lear drew.

What was the first Bird Day?

The first Bird Day was held on Friday, May 4, 1894, in the schools of Oil City, Pennsylvania, the idea of their superintendent, Charles Almanzo Babcock. He told the story himself in his 1901 book, Bird Day: How to Prepare for It.

• How it began. In the spring of 1894, Babcock noticed how interested his pupils were in birds. The work would make a deeper mark, he thought, if a day were set aside for it and called Bird Day.
• Modeled on Arbor Day, and backed by its father. Babcock asked for support from J. Sterling Morton, the Secretary of Agriculture, “the father of ‘Arbor Day.’” Morton's reply, dated April 23, 1894, gave a Bird Day “on the same general plan as ‘Arbor Day’” his “cordial approval.”
• Famous names wrote back. The naturalist John Burroughs and the nature writers Olive Thorne Miller and Bradford Torrey answered too, warmly, Babcock writes.
• The first one. The New England Journal of Education reported that the day “was observed in the Oil City schools with a degree of enthusiasm which was good to see.” Babcock reprinted its report.
• Washington takes it up. In July 1896, the Department of Agriculture put out the idea as a circular, No. 17, with Morton's call: “Let us have a Bird Day,” a day “to tell the children about the birds,” as the magazine Birds and All Nature reprinted it in 1898.
• The states follow. Wisconsin became the first state to pass a Bird Day law, in 1897, according to the Bird History newsletter, which draws on Wisconsin's own Arbor and Bird Day booklet of 1898.
• Its purpose. “The object of Bird Day is to diffuse knowledge concerning our native birds,” Babcock wrote.

Is Bird Day the same as National Bird Day?

No. They are different days, with different founders and different aims. Babcock's Bird Day, in spring, was a school day for learning about wild native birds, on the plan of Arbor Day. National Bird Day, on January 5, began 108 years later and is about birds kept in captivity. We found nothing that links the two, apart from the name.

Why January 5? The birders' week

The coalition doesn't say why it chose January 5, but for birders the date lands at the end of a full week: it's the last day of the Christmas Bird Count, four days after the first bird of the year. Audubon pointed out the overlap itself in 2026.

• The Christmas Bird Count began on Christmas Day 1900 “as an alternative to competitive bird hunting,” Audubon says, and now runs every year from December 14 to January 5. Each count circle chooses one day in that window, so a few land in the first days of January. Here's how to find a Christmas Bird Count near you and sign up.
• The first bird of the year is simply the first one you see or hear on January 1. Many birders write it down every year: here's the first-bird tradition and how to record it.
• A year list is every species you see in one calendar year. By National Bird Day, yours is five days old: our guide explains how a year list works, and what makes a good one.
• The Great Backyard Bird Count comes next, from Friday, February 12 to Monday, February 15, 2027. You count for as little as 15 minutes, anywhere: how to take part in the February count.

How can birders mark National Bird Day?

Pick one small thing: a 15-minute count at the window, a look back at your first five days of the year, or a last Christmas Bird Count. You need nothing more than a notebook, and binoculars if you have them.

1. Count the window for 15 minutes. Write down every bird you see or hear, and for each kind the most you see at one time. That's the same count the Great Backyard Bird Count asks for in February, so January 5 makes a good dry run.
2. Look back at your first five days. Write down your first bird of the year, if you haven't yet, then count the species you've seen since January 1. That's the start of your year list.
3. Join a count, if one is still on. January 5 is the last day a Christmas Bird Count can be held. Counts ask you to sign up with the local organizer, the compiler, beforehand, so check well ahead.
4. Test your eye from a warm chair. Our free bird quiz shows classic paintings like Lear's budgerigar and asks you to name the bird, at five levels.
5. Do what the day's founders ask. The Avian Welfare Coalition's own list includes supporting reputable bird rescues and sanctuaries, not shopping at stores that sell birds, watching a documentary on the wild bird trade, and going to see parrots in their natural habitat.

Other bird days, and how they differ

National Bird Day is one of several bird days through the year, each with its own founders and aim. Here's how they compare.

What is National Pet Bird Day?

National Pet Bird Day is September 17, a day for pet birds and the people who keep them, established in 2019 by BEAK, the Bird Enjoyment and Advantage Koalition. BEAK is a group of bird product manufacturers, retailers and associations, formed, in its own words, “to address the need for responsible bird ownership and growth.” In 2027, September 17 is a Friday.

So the two days pull in opposite directions. National Pet Bird Day celebrates keeping birds; National Bird Day asks people to think twice before buying one.

Is it National Hummingbird Day?

Not on January 5: National Hummingbird Day is the first Saturday of September, which in 2027 is September 4. The Audubon Society of Omaha gives the rule in its newsletter for September and October 2026, when the day fell on September 5.

What is World Migratory Bird Day?

It's a worldwide day for migratory birds, held twice a year to follow migration in both halves of the globe: in 2026 it fell on May 9 and October 10. Four partners make it happen: the Convention on Migratory Species, the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement, the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership and Environment for the Americas. Its 2026 theme was “Every Bird Counts – Your Observations Matter!” Its site hadn't given the 2027 dates when we checked.

Your own list

If you keep a list of the birds you've seen, January 5 is a good day to bring it up to date. The first days of a new year fill a page quickly, and the Christmas Bird Count may have added a bird or two you'd never seen before. Our guide to what a life list is explains how birders keep one. If you'd like every bird you've ever seen in one place, a Birdfolio prints them all as a hardcover book, each beside a classic painting like Lear's budgerigar: page through a Birdfolio.

Questions people ask

Who started National Bird Day?

The Avian Welfare Coalition, in January 2002, with Born Free USA as a partner.

When is National Bird Day 2028?

Wednesday, January 5, 2028. It's January 5 every year.

Is National Bird Day about wild birds or pet birds?

Both, but its founders' focus is birds in captivity: parrots and other exotic birds kept as pets. Its slogan, “Birds are More Beautiful Wild,” makes the case for leaving them in the wild.

Why is National Bird Day on January 5?

Its founders don't say. January 5 is the last day of the Christmas Bird Count, and Audubon has noted that the two fall together.

National Bird Day is run by the Avian Welfare Coalition. We have no connection with it, or with any of the other days on this page.