Nature Net’s Pre- and Post-Field Trip Materials

Subject: Birds

Egg: A round or oval shell containing a developing bird, an embryo. Eggs provide food, an air supply, and protection for the growing embryo. Reptiles, insects and fish also lay eggs.

Feather: The defining feature of birds. All birds have them, and no other animal does. A bird's body is almost completely covered with feathers. Feathers keep the bird warm, give it shape, provide color for camouflage, and enable most birds to fly. There are three main types of feathers: flight, body, and down.

Nest: A place prepared or selected by birds to hatch their eggs and rear the young. Birds build nest out of many things including mud, twigs and branches, hair, string, and feathers. Some species use natural cavities for their homes, such as a hole in a dead tree or the nests of other birds.

Incubation: the process of heating eggs. For an egg to develop normally, it must be exposed for a length of time to warm temperatures (around 98.6, the average human body temperature). Almost all birds create the required temperature by sitting on eggs and transferring heat from their bodies to the eggs. Birds turn their eggs regularly, for even heating.

Bill: A bird’s bill must do many diverse jobs, since its forelimbs are devoted almost exclusively to flight. Bills are designed to capture and eat food, and things like shape and sharpness are clues to learning what a bird eats, where it looks for food and how it captures food. Birds also use their bills for courtship and other displays, preening, nest building, egg turning, defending and attacking, hatching, and so on.

Gizzard: a muscular section of a bird’s stomach lined with horny plates or ridges. They serve as the teeth and jaws of some birds. Grains, acorns, nuts, bones and other hard materials are crushed in the gizzard. Birds often swallow sand, grit or small stones, which are stored in the gizzard and aid in crushing.

Adaptation: Changes in an animal’s body or behavior that help it survive in its environment. For example, duck feet are webbed to help make them excellent swimmers. Their beaks are adapted as "scoops" to help them remove and filter food from the water. An eagle’s feet have talons that enable it to catch and hold prey. Its bill is razor sharp and strong to help it kill and shred prey into edible pieces.

Camouflage: An adaptation that allows animals to blend into their environment. An example of bird camouflage is the coloration of females of many species, who are dull and tend to blend into their surrounding environment. This helps females hide their nests and young from predators. In contrast, most males are brighter in color, able to lead predators away from the nest and attract females in courtship.

Birds are warm-blooded vertebrate animals that are different from other animals because of their feathers. They also have two wings, a strong bill, and scaly legs and feet. Most birds can fly, and they produce young by laying eggs.

Habitat preservation is important, as habitats provide birds with food, a place to live and rear young, and protection. Habitat for birds that migrate includes their winter and summer residences, as well as the route they travel to get from one place to the other.

Different bird species are well adapted to their habitats. The beaks and feet of birds reflect their specific environment. For example, raptors (birds of prey) such as hawks and owls, have excellent eyesight to spot their prey in a large open field. They have strong talons to grasp their prey and beaks that are meant for shredding their prey into bite size pieces.

Take a bird to lunch. buy or make different kinds of bird feeders. Select a place on school grounds to put them (maybe outside your classroom window!). Place different types of food in them (seed, suet, nectar, etc.), and in other places around the area. OR: plant a little garden of flowers, shrubs and trees that will produce seeds and fruits birds like to eat. Observe and record: 1) the birds at regular intervals (e.g. at the same time each day) throughout the year; 2) the kinds of foods different birds eat; 3) the number of birds that come; 4) where different birds get their food; 5) try to identify the birds; 6) anything else you can think of! Make a graph depicting the birds, frequency of visits, and food preferred. Keep a bird list.

Have students write a poem about a bird they have observed. Encourage them to describe aspects of the bird in the poem: how it looked, where it was, what it was doing.

Have students research the state birds in their region of the U.S. (or the entire country!) and match the birds with their states on a map.

Bird Watching for All Ages: Activities for Children and Adults. Hunken, Jorie. The Globe Pequot Press. 1992.

Ranger Rick's Nature Scope. Birds, Birds, Birds. National Wildlife Federation. 1988.

Owl Moon. Yolen, Jane. National Braille Press, 1990.

www.naturenet.com – great resource for finding curriculum materials about birds, facts and figures, and neat images of birds on line. You’ll find many links to bird-related sites such as the National Audubon Society.

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ADAPTATION FLIGHT    BEAK FLOCK    BILL HABITAT    CAMOUFLAGE HATCHLING

CHICKS HOLLOW BONES    DROPPINGS MIGRATION     EGG NEST    FEATHERS