Curriculum
Connections
Cultivating
Keen Observers
If
birds grace your schoolyard or neighborhood, invite students to
spend
some time each day or week observing them. If you don't yet have
bird feeders set up, consider enticing feathered friends to visit
by spreading
seeds on the ground or in a shallow pan. What do students notice
and talk about? This will help you gain a sense of what students
know, what intrigues them, and what they wonder about birds so you
can guide the learning process. Ask, How
would you describe the different types of visitors? How
do the birds interact with each other and with the food? Can you
compare
how different birds move from place to place?
Consider
having each student or team pick one or two common types of birds
in your area and focus on their behaviors and habits. Ask, for instance,
When your bird arrives at the feeding station, what do the other
birds do? Are there several individuals of that species present or
only one or two at a time? Does your bird species seem to prefer the
same types of food as other birds? (It might be interesting to
track such behaviors throughout the year.) Find out how students'
observations compare with what they already know about birds. Ask
them to generate a list of questions they have and categorize them
into those they can answer through observations and experiments and
those they can answer through further research.
Avian
Inquiries: Focus on Food
Challenge teams of students to set up schoolyard investigations to
try to answer their questions about their visitors' feeding preferences
and behaviors. They might design an experiment and keep careful data
on which birds prefer which types of food or feeder (e.g., tray on
ground, raised platform, tube, or house feeder.) Perhaps they'll decide
to focus on just one species; for instance, Do chickadees prefer
sunflower seeds, suet, cracked corn, or peanuts? Other questions
could focus on related behaviors; for instance, Do certain species
feed more at different types of day?
If your young
scientists have the opportunity to observe birds throughout the year,
they might set up a long-term study to explore how feeding and other
behaviors change through the seasons as birds find mates, build nests,
raise young, prepare for migration, and so on. Challenge teams to
describe how they'll set up their investigations and record their
data. For instance, they might divide a feeder into three sections
and put different types of food in each. (Consider sharing with students
that some birds even respond to different food colors! Doves, for
instance, prefer blue and green cracked corn to yellow. Students might
soak kernels in water with food coloring and let them dry out before
putting them in feeders.) As part of designing experiments, they'll
need to consider such questions as how often they'll check feeders.
Will they need to weigh food at the beginning and end of each day
to find out how much has been eaten? Like good scientists, students
should organize and represent their data and then share the experimental
design, data, and conclusions with their peers.
Create
a Bird-Friendly Schoolyard
Feeders are fine for feathered friends, but consider the opportunities
for learning and meeting avian needs in a living garden habitat. Here
are some tips for creating one: Like other animals, birds need food,
water, shelter, and safe places to rear their young. A diversity of
plant types — trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses, and so on —
can help feed, shelter, and protect a wide range of avian visitors.
Seed-eaters such as goldfinches like sunflowers and sun-loving perennials:
purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, and thistle. Hummingbirds thrive
on bright nectar-producing flowers: aloe, bee balm, butterfly bush,
columbine, cardinal flower, honeysuckle, and sage. Shrubs and trees
with berries, fruits, nuts, or sap, such as raspberry, blueberry,
pecan, and oak, are another key food source. Be sure to include some
plants, like highbush cranberry, that hold onto their fruits through
the winter. And grasses and legumes left unmowed can provide seeds
and cover for ground nesters.
Speaking
of Beaks? 
Birds have a host of fascinating adaptations for survival, but beaks
(also known as bills) take the cake when it comes to feeding. Each
species has a unique snout that just happens (thanks to evolution)
to enable it to access the "right" food. If students haven't already
commented on that creature feature, ask what they can notice about
if and how beaks relate to birds' food preferences. What can we
learn from the shape of a bill about the foods a bird is likely
to eat? (Beak shapes are also helpful characteristics for identifying
birds.) Allow students to observe over time to make some of these
connections. When appropriate, use some of the following information
to spark thinking.
Well-Adapted
Beaks
|
What,
No Teeth?
Your
keen observers might notice or question whether birds have
teeth. (They don't.) How do they handle those hard seeds?
Birds have strong acids in their stomachs that help digest
food. From there, hard foods, such as nuts, seeds, and grains,
go into the gizzard (a muscular part of the stomach) where
it is further ground up. Many birds actually swallow small
stones or grit, which help break down the food!
|
Hummingbirds
have long slender beaks that allow them to delicately probe flowers
in search of nectar.
(Although it's not easy to observe, they are also hollow.) Short,
thick, cone-shaped beaks, such as those on cardinals, sparrows,
and grosbeaks, are ideal for cracking hard seeds. Swallows and others
that gather insects in flight can open their beaks wide to get a
mouthful. Some birds that
find insects in logs and twigs, such as warblers, have small sharp
beaks while others, like woodpeckers, have long and chisel-like
beaks for boring deep. Birds of prey have sharp hooked beaks for
tearing into meat. The common crow has a multipurpose beak suitable
for eating fruit, seeds, insects, and fish. Some ducks and other
water birds have bills that act like strainers to gather tiny plants
and animals. Herons have spear-like bills for fishing.
Once students
have been steeped in beaks, you might want to bring in or challenge
them to find tools that have functions similar to bird beaks and
try using them to access different food sources. (A hummingbird's
beak acts like a straw, for instance. A nutcracker functions like
the beaks on seed-eating birds. The beaks of many water birds function
much like strainers.)
illustration
by Alysha |
Discover
More Clever Adaptations
Beaks are but one of the amazing adaptations that makes birds, well,
birds! Invite students to focus on other parts of birds' bodies.
What similarities and differences in structure do students notice?
Ask the class to consider advantages of different features and then
research to learn more about them.
All birds have
feathers, for instance (strong contour feathers for flight and downy
ones near the body for insulation), but they come in different shapes
and colors. Students might discover that the colors are brightest
during the spring and summer or that some birds of a species are
brighter than others. (Males are usually the vibrant ones whose
coloring impresses potential mates during breeding season!) How
might different wing sizes be an advantage? Soaring birds, like
eagles, have large wing spans, but songbirds that live in the woods
must have short wings in order to maneuver. If students notice birds
preening, let them know that an oil gland on their rumps secretes
oil that they spread on feathers to keep them waterproof and flexible.
Observe evidence of birds' eyesight and hearing (both are excellent)
and then research how these features help them survive.
Then there is
that characteristic so many of us enjoy: birdsong. Do students notice
differences in the amount or nature of birds' songs during different
times of year? And who, in fact, does the singing? (Males do most
of the singing to attract females or tell other males to stay away.
Also watch for displays such as thumping and strutting.) In addition
to a melodious song, most birds also have shorter call notes to
warn others. Many bird guides mention words or phrases that birders
employ to identify certain bird songs. Robins, for instance, sound
as though they're "saying" cheery, cheerio. Some, like chickadees,
are said to say their own names. Students may want to make up their
own words or other devices to help them identify bird songs in the
schoolyard or neighborhood. (This color- and sound-rich bird
song site is well worth a visit.)
Other
Schoolyard Bird-Inspired Activities
Identification
Have students list characteristics that help them distinguish between
birds they observe. Once they've made their own distinctions, introduce
a bird field guide so the class can learn how birds are typically
identified: by marks and colors, sizes and shapes, wings and flight
patterns, behaviors, habitat. The class may decide to create their
own field guide to birds in the schoolyard or neighborhood.
Birds in
Peril
Birds not only delight us, but they are important to the global
ecosystem. They spread plant seeds, eat pesky insects, feed on decaying
matter, and much more. They are also harbingers of the health of
our planet, as their populations readily show effects of pollution
and other perils. But many species of our feathered friends are
in decline. Scientists believe this may be due, in part, to habitats
being lost or fragmented due to clearing, development, and building
on wetlands. Other factors, such as house cats, pesticides, and
oil spills threaten birds. You may want to have students conduct
research to learn more about these factors and then consider how
they might take constructive action. For instance, they could make
nesting boxes, continue feeding birds throughout year, garden for
the birds, or donate time or funds to efforts to improve habitats
locally and nationally.
Follow Migration
As your students keep their eyes trained on birds over time, they
will likely notice that certain species are more abundant during
some periods than others. In fact, some species may be absent altogether
for months on end. You may want to have the class research where
they go and why and how they do it (there are some great Web resources).
As they explore the amazing feat of migration, have students think
about what would happen if birds in Northern climes stuck around
through the year. How much food could they find? As the sunlight
becomes more available in the North each spring and plants and other
animals come to life, food becomes readily available. The reverse
happens each fall. (Kids may notice a feeding frenzy in late summer
and fall as birds prepare for the journey. Hormonal changes in migrating
birds trigger accumulation of fats, which are vital for making sometimes
incredibly long journeys. (Some small birds store enough fat that
they can fly non-stop for unbelievable lengths of time -- sometimes
up to 90 hours. And, they seem to find their way without asking
directions!)
