National Bird Day was first celebrated in the United States in 2008. National Bird Day celebrates “the beauty, song, and flight of birds,” and their place in our ecosystem.
According to National Geographic, approximately 12% of bird species are endangered or threatened. Endangered birds include the California condor, Hawaiian goose, and Florida scrub jay.
In Illinois, where I have lived my whole life, the state bird is the cardinal. However, a bird I have seen in northern Illinois often in the last few years is the sandhill crane. And in my house, we have a parakeet, or budgerigar, which hails from Australia.