Bird Beak Buffet

All birds have beaks that they use for grasping and eating their food.  Bird beaks are all shapes and sizes which enable them to eat certain kinds of foods.  Seed and nut eaters usually have short, thick beaks for cracking open seeds.  Nectar feeders have long slender beaks for reaching into flowers.  Other birds have beaks that are suited for meat eating, filtering, spooning, chiseling, or pinching.  Bird beaks are an example of an adaptation.  Adaptations are a special feature or behavior that allow an animal to survive in its environment.

For this activity gather a set of eating utensils (spoon, fork, chopsticks and toothpicks) for each child as well as a variety of shapes of cooked pasta (be sure to have round ones, as well as long thin ones), and sunflower or pumpkin seeds.  Begin by asking children what kinds of food they like to eat and how they eat these foods.  Why do they eat some foods with a fork and others with a spoon or even their hands?  Ask children what animals use to eat their food.  Have they ever seen a bird eat?  What does a bird use to eat its food?  Allow the children to use the different utensils to try and eat the various kinds of pasta and seeds.  Which utensils worked best for which food?  Have the children sort the foods by the utensil that worked to eat that food.

Next use various “tools” to imitate bird’s beaks, such a cup for a pelican’s pouch, a turkey baster for a hummingbird’s long slender beak, tongs for the long, thin beaks of shorebirds, and tweezers for the strong, pointed beaks of woodpeckers.  Allow each child to try out the different bird beaks at various stations that contain different bird “foods” such as bowl of water with plastic fish for the pelican, a tall vase of water for the hummingbird, plastic worms in sand or soil for the shorebirds, and rice tucked into the bark of a log for the woodpeckers. After each child has had a chance to explore the different stations ask them: Which bird beak worked best for each food?  Why?  What kind of food might each bird eat?  Why do they think so?  Can looking at a bird’s beak help us guess what it eats? 

For this and other great ideas use Growing Up WILD’s “Bird Beak Buffet” and the included supplemental materials.

Looking for an extension of this activity?  February 18-21 is the annual Great Backyard Bird Count and everyone can participate!  Visit their website at http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ for more information.  Bird feeders are a wonderful place to observe and count birds.  If you are lucky enough to have a bird feeder outside your classroom window observing and counting birds there would be a wonderful way for children to participate in the GBBC.  If not, you can create bird feeders as a class using clean, used milk cartons or jugs or even pinecones.  The feeders can be hung outside where they are easily observable from the classroom.

Feeding and Observing Birds:
http://www.pbs.org/parents/catinthehat/activity_feeding_observing_birds.html

Milk carton bird feeder:

http://www.greeneducationfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=667:activity-milk-carton-bird-feeder&catid=137:greenthumbactivities&Itemid=434

Pinecone bird feeder:

http://www.enviro-explorers.com/pinecone_web_page/pineconefeederindex.html

Feeding wild birds:

http://www.osweb.com/kidzkorner/feeder.htm

Edible ornaments for birds:

http://www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Be-Out-There/Activities/Cook-and-Craft/Make-Edible-Ornaments-for-Animals.aspx

Book List

Arnosky, J. 1997. Bird Watcher. Random House Children's Books.

Arnosky, J. 1993. Crinkleroot's 25 Birds Every Child Should Know. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Arnosky, J. 1992. Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the Birds. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Bailey, D. 1992. Birds: How to Watch and Understand the Fascinating World of Birds. DK Publishing, Inc.

Bushnell, J. 1996. Sky Dancer. HarperCollins Publishers.

Collard, S.B. 2002. Beaks! Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.

Garelick, M. 1995. What Makes a Bird a Bird? Mondo Publishing.

Herkert, B. 2001. Birds in Your Backyard. Dawn Publications.

Latimer, J. et al. 1999. Backyard Birds (Peterson Field Guides for Young Naturalists). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Oppenheim, J.F. and B. Reid. 1987. Have You Seen Birds?. Scholastic, Inc.

Pascoe, E., et al. 2000. How and Why Birds Use Their Bills (How and Why Series). Creative Teching Press, Inc.

Rabe, T. and A. Ruiz. 1998. Fine Feathered Friends: All About Birds (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library). Random House Children's Books.

Rockwell, A.F. 1992. Our Yard Is Full of Birds. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Sill, C.P. 1997. About Birds: A Guide for Children. Peachtree Publishers.

Weidensaul, S. and T. Taylor. 1998. Birds (Audubon Society First Field Guide Series). Scholastic, Inc.
Yolen, J. 1999. Bird Watch: A Book of Poetry. Putnam Juvenile.  

Zim, H.S. 1989. Birds. St. Martin's Press.