International Birds Day.

International Birds Day is celebrated on April 1 – an ecological holiday that takes place within the framework of the UNESCO program "Man and the Biosphere".

The purpose of the holiday is to draw the public's attention to the problems of bird conservation, to spread scientific knowledge about them.

Birds have lived on the planet for more than 150 million years, there is no such corner on Earth where they would not be.

Birds are considered the first to bring us news of the arrival of spring. They attract our attention with their melodious singing, beautiful coloring and graceful flight, and they also bring great benefits to humans. Birds destroy not only harmful insects, but also many harmful rodents, which often cause significant damage to crops.

This holiday has been traditional for Mykolaiv Zoo for many years. Our zoo has a department of ornithology that keeps and successfully breeds rare birds, such as: white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), Steller's sea eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus), cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus), steppe eagle (Aquila nipalensis), white-naped crane (Grus vipio), great white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus).

Birds are housed in many enclosures throughout the zoo. And our zoo also has a large pond where waterfowl from different continents are kept: Canada geese (Branta canadensis), Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiaca), black swans (Cygnus atratus), mute swans (Cygnus olor), shelducks (Tadorna) and ruddy shelducks (Tadorna ferruginea).

Mykolayiv Zoo has in its collection the largest flightless birds in the world – common ostriches (Struthio camelus) and emus (Dromaius).

Today, the zoo's collection of birds includes 109 species – 781 individuals. In 2022, we received a significant number of new species from the private individuals who were forced to leave the city because of the shelling. All birds kept in Mykolaiv Zoo are rare. They are listed in the IUCN Red List and in the Red Book of Ukraine.

Mykolaiv Zoo not only keeps rare birds, but also successfully breed them, contributing to the preservation of endangered bird species.