Everday brings another bird friend. Yesterday involved the discovery of a cardinal nest in the woodland shrubs bordering our backyard. The nest resembled a small cup or saucer; and two cardinals were not pleased to observe our curious exploration of their abode. Despite the cardinals' protective behavior, we couldn't find any eggs in the nest.
Given the dearth of bird songs and nests in our everyday life, I thought it might help the Eldest to gain a better handle on bird identification skills. So I created the youtube "birding" playlist above which combines five different made-for-youth birding videos from the Cornell Ornithology Lab.
After watching the videos, the Eldest tried his hand at the Cornell Lab's Bird Identification Skills module. He also ventured back to check on the cardinal nest and to note another incident up the street in which crows were mobbing hawks.
In preparation for International Migratory Bird Day, which takes place annually on the second Saturday of May, we reviewed all the lovely free materials and maps available online.
MORE FREE LEARNING TO EXPLORE
An * indicates a PDF document to download and print.
Bird Identification Game (Baton Rouge Audobon Society)*
Plugging kids into birding (10,000 Birds)
Garden bird hunt handout (Nature Detectives)*
Visual Key for Bird Identification
International Migratory Bird Day Educator's Packet (USDA Forest Service)*
Bird Behavior Hunt and Hike (National Wildlife Foundation)*
Bird-watching helps kids become nature-wise (Karen Stephens)*
How to find birds (Bird Watcher's Digest)
Bird journal coloring and identification pages (Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus)*
Connecting Kids Through Birds Project (Cloud Forest Conservation)
Bird footprint craft (Wild Birds Unlimited)
What's That Bird? game (Penny Rodrick)
Bird Matching Game (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences)
Dee Dee's milk jug birdfeeder craft (Wild Birds Unlimited)*
"The Life of Birds" by David Attenborough (PBS)
