Bird Beak Buffet

It is time once again for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count! The GBBC is February 17-20 this year and people of all ages can participate.  The GBBC is a four-day even that engages people across the United States to count birds in their own backyards (or schoolyards!).  You can participate by counting only one day for fifteen minutes or you can count birds every day, the choice is yours.

Prepare your little ornithologists by starting off with a study of birds. Ask students if they have ever seen birds? Where have they seen birds? Ask them if they have ever seen a bird eat? What do birds eat?  How do birds eat? Record their responses and observations. Look at pictures of birds, and read books about birds. Go for a walk and look for birds or signs of birds.

Now you are going to try to eat like birds! For snack time gather a set of utensils for each child - spoon, fork, chopsticks, and toothpicks. Next give each child a variety of previously prepared food items, such as a variety of shapes of cooked pasta, seeds, nuts etc, use what you can to imitate bird food . Allow the children time to try to each of the foods with the various utensils. After the children have had a chance to try the various utensils with the different foods ask them which utensils worked best for which foods? Have them sort the food into piles of which utensils they ate them with.

Next set up stations for different bird “beaks”, such as a cup for a pelican’s pouch, a turkey baster or eye dropper for a hummingbird’s slender beak, tongs for the long thin beaks of shorebirds, and tweezers for the strong, pointed beaks of woodpeckers. At Each bird station put the coordinating “food” for the bird’s “beak”. For the pelican, a bowl of water with plastic fish, 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. Allow time for each student to be able to visit each station and try to eat like a bird. Try using different “beaks” at different stations? Which “beak” works better for which food item? Why? Look at the different bird “beaks” and look at pictures of real bird beaks. How can looking at a bird’s beak help us guess what it eats? Why do they think so?

As a class, create bird feeders to hang outside your windows or in the schoolyard. Try making milk carton or pinecone bird feeders. Observe your feeders once a day and record how many birds you see. Have a bird ID book handy and look up the birds you see and record your observations. One day during the GBBC record the birds you see at your feeders. Take a walk around your schoolyard and record the species and number of birds you see. Submit your results to the GBBC. You are now citizen scientists and have contributed to the study of North American song birds!

For this and other activities, including craft, snack and math connections, use Growing Up WILD’s “Bird Beak Buffet”!

Links

Great Backyard Bird Count

http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc

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.