International Birds Day is celebrated on April 1. For the first time, this day was celebrated as a mass children's holiday in the United States of America. The organizer was Charles Almanzo Babcock, a teacher from a town in Pennsylvania. 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.

Our zoo has an ornithology department 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 aviaries 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), common shelducks (Tadorna) and ruddy shelducks (Tadorna ferruginea). Mykolaiv Zoo has in its collection the largest flightless birds in the world – common ostriches (Struthio camelus) and emus (Dromaius).

Birds Day has been a traditional holiday for Mykolaiv Zoo for decades. This year, as part of the Birds Day celebration, a thematic excursion "Long-lived birds of Mykolaiv Zoo" and an interactive lecture "Zoo to the touch. Birds" and "Bird Quest" were held. We hope that the acquired knowledge will help in the formation of ecological awareness of our visitors.