Winter Series #7 - Winter Birds

Outdoor Hour Challenges - Winter Series #7 - Winter Birds

We weren't able to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count because we had family visiting us and lots of activities going on. But we did pick a bird to focus on for this challenge. We noticed the European Starling has started returning to our neighborhood. Last year many of the houses in our neighborhood could boast a starling nest built in the eves of the house. I posted about it here - I talk about the starlings the last half of the post.

Here is a recent picture of some starlings on a neighboring house:

To learn about the Starling's migration we went to All About Birds - European Starling - Life History. They don't have a very exciting migration, but the kids were interested because we noticed when they left this past fall and now they are coming back. They also thought it was neat that all starlings found in North America originated from 100 birds released in the state of New York in 1890, and that starlings can mimic the calls of other birds.

I printed out coloring pages from Cornell's Bird coloring book for the kids to color, cut out, and glue into their journals. They wanted extra pages so they could cut them out and have "pets." When they were done coloring I asked what other colors they could use to make them more like a starling and they quickly corrected me "We colored juvenile starlings, Mom, not adults!" Silly me!

A's-N's-

Today we went to a local park to feed the ducks - We were happily surprised to see a few additions to the group of 8 we have been visiting this winter, which caused a short discussion on where they could have come from.

My kids are wondering if this bird is a goose - anyone know? We are trying to identify it online and in our bird guides, but no luck so far!!