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Tips to help you connect your family to nature!
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(Left) Students release a bird that has just been captured, measured and banded by a biologist during the bird-banding project at Ridgway State Park. This is a great opportunity for children to get a close up look at birds and ask questions. (Right) A young girl examines the features of a bird preserved as a study skin (protected in a clear tube). She uses a simple bird guide to help her identify the species. Identifying birds can be challenging for even the most patient adults. Getting kids interested in birding is even more challenging. Luckily, most kids are natural explorers and generally eager to be outside, so that’s a great place to start. A simple way to start birdwatching is to point out a bird you see or hear with your naked eye. Next, invite children to take a closer look. Then, ask your children simple questions about it such as, “What do you think that bird is doing down there in the grass?” This will help them begin to observe, question, and discover birds in the air, on land, and in water, beginning with the most common birds around. It's often easiest to start watching birds from your yard, patio, or even through a window. Next, observe birds that live nearby—in nature centers, parks, nature reserves, and other outdoor spaces. This can be especially fun during migration periods in the spring or fall. For most active kids, staying still and quiet for even a few minutes can be a challenge. It helps to point out an attention grabbing bird—something big, colorful or one with an unusual call. Many water birds are often colorful and obvious. While walking along a lake, you are sure to see larger birds floating, feeding, or preening (cleaning their feathers). Encourage observations by asking your child about the bird they see, the color of an eyepatch, the size or shape of the beak. Many geese, ducks and other water birds (mergansers, egrets, herons) have distinctive feather patterns especially in the spring when they have arrived with fresh colorful feathers to attract a mate during breeding season. Take a few moments to watch the bird. Look for the long wispy plumes on the necks of herons and egrets. Mallards have iridescent green feathers on their heads and are often commonly referred to as greenheads. Ducks with rusty head feathers are called Redheads. What are they doing? Are the ducks diving for food (a full on dive below the surface) or are they dabbling (only dipping their heads to sieve the surface water for bugs)? The feeding strategies of ducks split them into two different categories: divers and dabblers. Another large common bird near water are great blue herons. Ask your children to describe the color of the body feathers, or any other unique feature of this bird (long beaks, long legs). All these features give clues as to what the bird eats. In the case of herons, they spear fish, frogs and mice with their long sharp beak. It's good to get kids to describe the size of a bird by referring to a relatable item, such as one of their small toys or stuffies. The bird may be the size of one small stuffy—a finch, two times the stuffy—a robin, five times—a duck, and so on. Then ask them to describe something else about the bird, maybe the way it is flying: flapping (like geese), gliding (like a seagull), soaring with the wind (like an eagle or hawk), hovering (like a marsh hawk over a field) or a constant flutter of wings (like a hummingbird). Soon you will be able to distinguish different flight patterns. Sit quietly for a few moments while enjoying a snack and listen for different bird sounds. Most birds squawk, chirp, and warble, but some of them are more “talkative”—their songs sound almost like a speech. Turning a birdcall into a memorable phrase or pattern (mnemonic) is a great way to learn the song. Many birds already have assigned phrases for their calls.
o make it even more fun for your child, have them make up their own phrases or mnemonics to help them remember the bird! The calls of cranes as they fly over is a very common sound during spring migration described as a rattle but you may come up with a better description. How about the calls of Canada geese? Let your child's imagination take them down that descriptive route. You don’t have to identify every bird by the actual name in the bird books. Get crazy and make up your own names for a bird maybe depending on what they are doing. Inviting children to look for birds begins with finding creative ways to notice these feathered creatures. Getting inventive with your observations is a perfect way to get young ones interested. Observations and collecting data on birds or any species for that matter is what you decide to pay attention to. With this "anything goes perspective" observations are endless. Let your kids decide what they would like to observe about the birds they see such as: how often they preen, favorite branches they frequent, how often an American robin digs its beak into the garden, how often hummingbirds buzz each other at the feeder, how many different feather colors you see in 10 minutes. Try a Birding Scavenger Hunt: To see as many birds as possible. For some kids, counting from zero to some arbitrary number—five different kinds of birds, for example, or 20 birds in one outing—will be enough to stay focused and have fun. To fire up kids’ powers of observation, make a list of target birds before heading to the yard or park. Use general categories like ducks and hawks. If you aren’t seeing any birds, how about looking for signs of their presence such as owl pellets, bird nests, whitewash (poop) on rocks or cliffs—a good indication of raven or eagle perches. Binoculars can be very hard for children to learn how to use. The best approach is to focus on staying still and looking for the movements of birds and describing what they see. Sometimes using a phone camera can work as you can zoom into the picture to help see details about the bird. Gradually, with practice they can learn to use and focus binoculars aimed at still objects then slow moving ones. Using binoculars to track an animal takes practice so be encouraging. Here are a few opportunities on the western slope to get kids up close and curious about birds:
Observing animals, describing, and discussing what they are doing is the first step in getting young children aware of creatures around them. There is such awe when they see furry or feathered critters. Encourage that awe and inspire your child to look around, discover, be curious, ask questions and explore more! Other resources to get kids interested in birding:
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