Welcome to Day 21 of 31 Days of Backyard Nature Fun, a month-long series offering simple ways to get outside exploring the natural world. To see activities from earlier this month, head here.
One of the activities I recommended earlier this month was making a pinecone birdfeeder – in part as a way to get to know the birds that call your backyard home.
Now it’s time to take your learning one step further. Spend at least 15 minutes today with your little explorer(s) sitting in your backyard observing the birds that come and go.
Day 21: Watch backyard birds.
I’ll be honest: Before I started this blog, I had little to no interest in birds, let alone the birds that lived in my own backyard. So what’s changed?
I love wildlife and birds are one form of wildlife you’re pretty much guaranteed to see every single day – even when you live in a very urban setting such as ours.
Wondering how exactly to watch backyard birds with kids? Here are a few tips:
- Head outside, find a quiet spot and have a seat. If you have binoculars, bring them, too.
- Look around. Check bird feeders, trees, along fences and in bushes.
- Listen up. We do our best identifying by sound rather than sight. That’s because we’ve spent loads of time just listening to the chirps of our backyard birds. When a new visitor stops by, we know almost instantly.
- Don’t worry about naming what you see. Instead, focus on things such as the color of a bird’s body, beak and feet. These can be used to identify what you see later.
- Have fun!
And if your explorer already likes to watch backyard birds, start a bird book or go on a bird watching scavenger hunt.
Just joining us? Catch up on what we’re up to at 31 Days of Backyard Nature Fun.
Kate, the GBBC is a fantastic way to get excited about backyard bird watching. (I'll be posting more about it next month.) Thanks so much for sharing this info. Sounds like you've really enjoyed participating.
Something that we have participated in for the past three years is the Great Backyard Birdcount. It's Feb. 15-18 this year. The site is http://birdsource.org/gbbc. You pick a time increment of at least 15 minutes and tally the birds in your backyard or another location. They give you all the info on what to do and even how to identify the birds. Then you enter your data and can see what
I love that idea, Barb! And a good bird identification book is most definitely a must.
Wow – that sounds so cool! We've had a couple of very cool sightings, but mostly finches and hummers. Lots of hummers.
I agree! The backyard is a perfect place for kids to start learning more about local wildlife.
We have a checklist. We printed out a list of birds that are known to be seen (however infrequently) in Wisconsin (from the DNR website) and every time we see one, we check it off on our list… whether we see it at our feeders at home or out hiking the trails of the wildlife refuge or along the Upper Mississippi River Flyway. It's a good way to learn about birds and how you can distinguish
That's a great photo! We love watching the birds outside our window, too. Especially in spring when the Western tanagers and other colorful birds come through. And summer when we catch watch the osprey that nests near the river raise her chicks and catch fish.
It's really great to had children observe and respect wildlife. So many children these days know very little about wildlife.xxxx