Birds
Winter is the very best time for observing birds since there are no leaves on the trees! It is also a good time to feed them since food is scarce in winter. A scientist that studies birds is called an ornithologist. Many animals can fly: Insects, birds, bats, flying squirrel (glides). Birds have something that no other animal has – feathers. They build nests almost everywhere, lay eggs, are warm blooded, most of them fly, molt and migrate. They have scales, claws and preen glands. The ostrich has claws on the wings. Birds can fly, hop, run, or swim. They evolved from reptiles. The archaeopteryx had teeth. All birds have beaks and no teeth. They control insects, plant seeds, and help pollinate plants.
Can you name some birds that fly? Name some birds that cannot fly: penguin, ostrich, emu, kiwi, chickens, and turkey. Birds have no sweat glands and pant to cool off. Their predators are hawks, snakes and foxes. Male birds are the most colorful and sing the most.
Food: Birds may be carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, or fructivores. They may eat seeds, insects, worms, fish, mice, fruit, rabbits, nectar, or dead animals. Seed and nut eaters have gizzards for grinding and some birds have crops to store food for later. The scavengers that eat dead animals are gulls, crows, ravens and vultures. Birds may feed by hawking for insects, gleaning from trees, probing, chiseling, leaf tossing, sweeping, diving in water, stooping (falcons), dabbling (ducks), stalking, piracy, and scavenging. Hawks and owls cough up pellets.
Bodies of birds are shaped like a rocket. They are vertebrates. The bones are hollow making them lightweight for flying. Owls are able to see at night when they hunt and falcons have telephoto vision that they can find a mouse in a field from very far away. They have a bone in their tongue, breathe air; have lungs with air sacs, a 4 chambered heart, large eyes, claws, scales on their legs, and a preen gland that makes oil. They have different kinds of beaks and feet. They bath in water and some give themselves dust baths (thought to control mites and lice.)
Some birds roost together when they sleep. Birds usually lay their head back and tuck their beak in their shoulder when they sleep. Those that perch to sleep are able to lock their feet in place so they don’t fall off the limb.
Feathers When birds groom themselves it is called preening. Feathers have barbs or hooks and if they get messed up the bird can hook them back with their beaks and oil them to water proof them. Birds molt their feathers (lose feathers and grow new ones.) Birds have 3 kinds of feathers: body feathers, downy feathers and flight feathers. Many birds fly in flocks.
Flight Wings are curved on top so air rushes over them and are more flat below so air moves slower creating lift. The Bernouli effect – air acts like a fluid and its effect upon a curved surface is lift. Some birds are night flyers; owls, oil birds. Many birds migrate south in winter months. Some birds fly in formation: ducks, pelicans and geese. Birds navigate by following the stars or the sun, or the magnetic field of the earth.
Nests They make nests in holes of trees, on the ground, in rock crevices, hanging, in cactus and bird boxes. Nests are made of sticks, mud, hair, leaves, grass and moss and some birds decorate their nests. Bower birds build houses sometimes 6 feet tall and decorate them with pretty things they find and sometimes paint the inside of the nests blue. The largest nest is the bald eagles.
Eggs: Birds incubate their eggs. Baby birds have an egg tooth to crack out of the shell. Many animals lay eggs: fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, platypus and anteater. Eggs are the most complete food known to man and one of the rare foods that has vitamin D. Chickens with red feathers lay brown egg, white feathers = white eggs. Largest egg is from the ostrich.
Bird Sounds Birds may have a call or they may sing, quack, honk, coo, hoot, screech, chirp, peep or whistle. Storks have no voice. The oil bird lives in caves with bats and uses echolocation making a clicking sound. A mynah bird is the best talker and the mockingbird can sing anything. The Loon has a weird cry (hence “crazy as a loon).
Habitat Birds live in every type of habitat.
The fastest bird is the swift – 130 mph.
The arctic tern flies the farthest.
The only bird that can fly backwards is the hummingbird.
The Jacana has the longest toes.
A woodpecker drills holes hammering with his beak.
The albatross lives 42 years, Macaw 100, hummingbird 5.
The male hornbill plasters the female in hollow of a tree to have her young.
Owls have eyes that can only look straight ahead but can turn their head all around to see. They can see in the dark and can hear a beetle crawling.
The kiwi doesn’t have wings and the feathers look like hair. They live underground at the bottom of trees. They stomp the ground at night and worms crawl out that they eat. Some birds can talk.
The Loon is like a flying submarine, and is the best swimmer, diving the deepest and staying under water the longest.
Recipe for birds: 1 cup peanut butter, 4 cups cornmeal, 1 cup shortening, 1 cup white flour. You can fill a large pine cone with this mixture and hang it outside for them. They love it.
Materials: Models and pictures of birds, samples of feathers, eggs and skeletons, mixer and bowl for beating up egg whites for class to see( in marshmallows and meringue) The yolk goes in another bowl to examine. It is the food for the tiny embryo that you see as a tiny white spot on the yolk. The white acts as a cushion for the yolk. I have a few wings from birds, feet from several and samples of beaks I have collected over the years. Bird call are fun and there are some great recordings of bird sounds. Hand out of different kinds of bird feet and bird beaks.
Activities See if kids can name the birds in the pictures. See if they can match the feet and beaks to the right birds on the print outs, Give each child a feather to inspect. Kids can examine the samples of eggs, bones, feet, and beaks. Can they identify any of the bird calls? Break out an egg and examine it. They love to see what happens when you beat up the whites! Make pine cone bird feeders from the recipe.
BIRD SUET RECIPE
2 lb. of Suet or Lard, vegetable shortening or peanut butter
6 cups Cornmeal
3 cups Wheat flour
4 cups Oatmeal
2 cups Peanut Hearts (I substituted unsalted shelled sunflower seeds)
Optional: raisins or other dried fruit, nuts, peppers
Soften the lard to room temperature. Stir in the other ingredients a couple of cups at a time until the mixture is quite thick. Children will love mixing this with their hands. Roll it out with a rolling pin and let children cut out “cookies.” Freeze. The mixture can also be frozen in tuna cans or plastic tubs about 4 inches by 4 inches fits nicely in wire suet cage feeders. You could push thin chicken or fishing wire through the thick cookie before freezing. Children can give these suet cookies as gifts or put them out for your birds through the winter.
REFLECTION
Harpie Eagle
Little Blue Fairy Penguin
ROADRUNNER
RED ROBIN
HUMMINGBIRDS
PURPLE GALLINULES
MARSH HEN GATHERING FOR NEST
SPECKLED OWL SOUTH AMERICA
WHITE BACKED VULTURE
BLUE JAY
BLUE FOOTED BOOBIES
THIRSTY CANARY
SPARROW
PEREGRINE FALCON
NEST BUILDING