Birds- Jays & Bluebirds

Jays & Bluebirds

One of the great things about the bird studies is that we are all more aware of birds around us. We watch and listen for them during our outdoor challenge time, but also while we are out walking or at the park, grocery store, or post office, as was the case this week.

We used Cornell's All About Birds site to briefly learn about all the Jays & Bluebirds that are part of the challenge, and then focused on two that are found in our area- the Western Scrub Jay & the Mountain Bluebird. We used the coloring pages listed in the challenge, read about bluebirds in the Handbook of Nature Study, and also read from the Burgess Bird Book. We also watched some youtube videos the Western Scrub jay and found these great pictures of Mountain Blue Birds nest, eggs, and nestlings.

Even though the cornell site says Jays don't frequently eat other bird eggs or nestlings, this is the most interesting fact of the week for my kids, especially after reading the Burgess Bird Book story of Sammy Jay stealing the Chebec's eggs while the nest is unattended.

Our bird feeder is on our back deck, and when the weather is nice-ish I leave the back door open so we can listen to the birds coming and going. We have only ever noticed House Finches at our feeder, but the kids still like to watch and listen to them. Lunchtime gives them the perfect opportunity. At the time of this picture there was a bird on the far side, and my kids would quietly say whenever they saw the tail or head poke around the side, or seeds and husks dropping.



We also decided to learn about a bird we had observed during this week, and we picked the California Gull, which we see everywhere we go- foraging for trash at the store, hanging out at the post office, and flying in a group above the park. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera handy at any of those times! But my parents shared their visit to the river with lots of seagulls just in time for our study!

Austin's (age 7)

Nyah's (age 6)
When we arrived at the post office we also spotted this flock of birds (pictured below) happily feasting on the lawn. I'm guessing they are cowbirds, but my kids couldn't resist trying to catch one, so I didn't get to observe them for long. We plan on learning more about them this next week.We also spent time discussing birds beaks. We used this great website to learn about different types of beaks- there are 12 different bird beaks shown and when you put your mouse over the picture it tells you what kind of bird it is and how it uses its beaks. We also compared the beaks of the birds we were studying to this page to see which beak they matched best, and discussed if the birds used their beaks in the same way. My kids really enjoyed this part of our Nature Study this week!