Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival
BirdsCaribbean is working to increase awareness and appreciation of the region’s unique bird life through an annual Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF).
The theme of the 2025 festival is “Shared Spaces: Building Bird-Friendly Cities and Communities.” Creating bird-friendly cities and communities is crucial for addressing the decline in bird populations caused by threats like habitat loss, predation, and climate change. The small size of many Caribbean islands makes the preservation of green spaces even more critical, as urban areas are often closely linked to natural habitats like forests and wetlands.
You can help by planting native trees and plants, reducing the use of pesticides, installing birdhouses and feeders, and advocating for green spaces in your communities. By integrating these green spaces into our cities and communities, we can create interconnected corridors that provide birds with the shelter, food, and safe routes they need as they move between mountain peaks and mangroves. Every small step builds toward a greater movement for birds—get involved today!
Click here to learn more about our plans to celebrate birds and create bird-friendly habitats this spring. We hope you will join us in our month-long celebration of the festival with your own activities, such as birding, planting native trees, and learning about the importance of green spaces to birds and our well-being. Similar to our previous three CEBFs, we will be featuring a new Endemic Bird of the Day, puzzles, coloring pages, activities, webinars, and much more! You can find a library of our past Endemic Birds of the Day here. Be sure to follow us on social media, @BirdsCaribbean (Instagram, Facebook and twitter), and share how you are participating at home!
Looking for a CEBF event on your island? Check our map below for what is going on near you!
If you are a CEBF event organizer and would like to add your in-person, virtual or hybrid event(s) to this map please use this Google form to register your event with us. The information you provide will then be used to populate the map above. If your event is a presentation being held at a school or university and is not open to the public you can still fill out the form, but state that it is closed to the public.
If you are not seeing your local environmental organizations on the map please use our CEBF Coordinators Directory to connect with local conservation organizations and find out what’s going on near you!
An impressive 33% of the ~565 species of birds within the region are found nowhere else in the world! See the list of 185 endemic birds in the region (the Bermuda Petrel is also listed although not technically a West Indies endemic). At dozens of events throughout the region, participants of all ages will learn about actions they can take to help the unique birds found only in the Caribbean. Activities are organized by local organizations in each Caribbean island/country and include presentations, bird walks, art competitions, tree plantings, clean ups, and more.
BirdsCaribbean has hosted this festival for more than 20 years. The month-long celebration includes Caribbean-wide activities beginning on Earth Day (April 22), through to International Biodiversity Day (May 22), in more than twenty countries. The event celebrates the 185 bird species that are found only in the Caribbean, known as endemics. The highly successful program attracts over 100,000 participants and volunteers each year. Learn more about our endemic birds here. To find out how you can participate in CEBF activities, contact our Co-Regional Coordinators, Aliya Hosein and Eduardo Llegus.
World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD)
The long journeys that migratory birds take each year are truly fantastic. These birds, like our endemics and residents, are part of our natural heritage and it is up to us to conserve the habitats they need to feed and rest during winter or their long migrations. We encourage all of you to celebrate WMBD in your own country, as you have celebrated the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival with great success for many years now. WMBD is officially celebrate on the second Saturday in October in the Caribbean (this year October 11th), but you can celebrate anytime in the fall that is convenient for you.
In 2025, the theme is “Shared Spaces: Building Bird-Friendly Cities and Communities.“ WMBD 2025 will emphasize that every community – urban to rural – 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, communities can significantly contribute to the well-being of migratory birds. We will also learn about the long migrations some species take between their breeding and wintering ranges and how important the Caribbean is to migrants.
In the fall, we will share a Migratory Bird of the Day with colouring pages, online puzzles, natural history information, photos, videos, activities for kids, webinars, and more! Follow along on our website and social media (look for BirdsCaribbean on Facebook, twitter and Instagram). We are also hosting webinars – check out what’s available here on BirdsCaribbean Live. Thanks to assistance from Environment for the Americas, we have a new poster, education kits, and other materials to help you celebrate. Great resources for celebrating WMBD can be found at Environment for the Americas website (home of WMBD in the Americas) and MigratoryBirdDay.org, and also the global website of World Migratory Bird Day.