An efficient wave-defect interaction is the key to a high thermal response of flaws in ultrasonic thermography. To selectively enhance defect vibrations a concept of local defect resonance is developed and applied to ultrasonic activation of defects. The frequency match between the defect resonance frequency and the probing ultrasonic wave results in a substantial rise of a local defect temperature. The defect resonance is accompanied by depletion of the excitation frequency vibration due to nonlinear frequency conversion to higher harmonics. The local generation of higher frequency components provides a high thermal defect response in such an acoustically nonlinear thermography mode.