FAMILY SLOW BIRDING - SESSION 3
Seeing Shapes
Video 3
In this session, we fine-tune our observation skills by looking for shapes in birds. I show you how to have some fun tracing pictures of birds to look at body shapes and silhouettes. And, I share the Sit Spot prompt of the day which are some special sentences to complete in your nature journal.
Downloads for this session
Bird of the Day - American Goldfinch
The Bird of the Day is our friend the American Goldfinch. I love this bird because it demonstrates the challenge of relying too much on color for identification. American Goldfinches go through a drastic change in their plumage from summer to winter. So much so that you may not recognize them as goldfinches at your feeders! That bright yellow bird disappears and the color is toned down especially for the male. BUT, right now they’re going through their spring molt and the males are beginning to pop with little bits of bright yellow. See if you can find a male bird at your feeders or on a walk. They’re the super chatty birds in the treetops right now. Click the button below to check out their summer yellow and listen to their chatty songs and calls.
Let’s Play - Design a Bird
Can you guess who this bird is? I’ll give you some clues. It’s bigger than a robin and smaller than a Red-tailed Hawk. It dive bombs hawks with its buddies. It is black. Sound: An emphatic CAW! Give up? This is an American Crow.
This is one of my favorite activities to do with both adults and kids. You can do it inside or out. You need some pictures of birds that you and your family know - and then you remake the bird with whatever materials you have at hand. You can use the bird images in the download above! Outside you’ve got leaves, grass, bark, sticks, flowers, etc. to work with. Inside you’ve got toys, construction paper scraps, pipe cleaners, bottle caps.
What’s great about this activity is it stimulates your creative mind while at the same time solidifying a search image in your head of a bird. This image will stick in your subconscious making that bird even more familiar the next time you see it. Huzzah for creative learning!
BRAIN FOOD - RESOURCES FOR YOU!
Artist Charlie Harper is known for his stylized wildlife prints based made up of colorful shapes, patterns, and textures. They not only depict the bird but often a behavior as well. Take a look at this cool flashcard set of 50 different birds found in North America.
Have You Heard the Nesting Bird? by Rita Gray, Kenard Pak illustrator. A favorite book in our house about siblings who look for a bird who has built a nest in their neighborhood.
And, since it’s National Poetry Month, our go-to book is Sing A Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year. When we remember, we read one together in the morning. PLENTY of bird-related poems in this book!