FAMILY SLOW BIRDING - SESSION 5
Starting Your Backyard Big Year

 
 

Video 5

In our final session together, I'll tell you about our Backyard Big List practice that we do every year. It's a way to track birds through the seasons and really getting to know our Bird Neighbors. I'll tell you how to start your own list and the rules for listing. And, I'll give you your last prompt for your Sit Spot practice - a way to say thank you to the birds you've been spending time with.

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Bird of the day - Red-winged Blackbird

Once upon a time, I was leading a pond exploration for a group of school kids in Vermont. We were at the edge of a spring peeper pond with dip nets and magnifying lens and field guides. Our focus was what was in the water, and yet there was one animal swaying in the cattails that demanded our attention. It was the male Red-winged Blackbird.

There were a number of them posted up around the pond, loudly singing, KONK-LA-REE! as they leaned in and rolled their red shoulders forward. As I taught the kids, the song, and shared how the males were establishing their territories by song & body language, this one boy looked at me in disbelief. I turned and asked what was troubling him, and he looked at me and said, “That’s not what that bird is saying. It’s saying, BURR-GER-KING!” And the group burst out laughing. The teacher looked like she was ready to scold the kid, but I jumped in and said, “Sure, sure, I can hear that too! If that works for you, let’s use it.”

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Let’s Play - Headbands for bird nerds

Yup, I’ve got an owl on my head. Took me a while to figure it out too. Ever play the game Head Bands? Or Who Am I? Or Twenty Questions? Well, that’s what this is with a bird theme!

All you need are some pictures of birds, you can cut them out of a magazine or print some from online. I’m using some cool Backyard Bird flashcards that a third-grader from Moretown Elementary School recommended to me. If you don’t have the game Head Bands, just grab some tape. The idea here is that each person is secretly given a bird. You can tape the picture to their back! Then ask other people questions about your bird and try to guess what it is. Here are some tips to get you started:

  • Start with birds that you and your kiddos are familiar with and birds that are local. Think about good starter birds like chickadee, robin, pigeon, owl.

  • Use bird identification tips talked about above as questions. Like, Does it live in the woods? or Is it here in the winter? or Is it bigger than a crow?

  • Think about what your bird might eat. Is it a seed eater? A fish eater? DOES IT EAT OTHER BIRDS???

  • What about where it likes to hang out? Does it spend most of the time in the air or on the ground? Does it glide or does it flap?

Each of these questions helps you build your knowledge of your local birds and your identification skills. Don’t know the answer to a question? GREAT! Go look it up together by clicking the button below.

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BRAIN FOOD - RESOURCES FOR YOU!

Using eBird for Phenology: 
Click here to go to eBird. Next click Explore in the menu at the top, then scroll down an find the picture with green in it and the heading Bar Charts. Click on that. Now you want to click on your state, then select Entire Region and click Continue. Now you have a bar chart that shows you when birds are around in your state. The taller the green bar, the more common it is during that month and week. Play around and see what you can discover about birds near you!

Migration Maps:
You’ll seem like a bird-whisperer if you use these maps to predict when birds will be arriving back near you. Click here for BirdCast. These maps are super cool because they use weather radar to predict when birds will move at night to migrate.

The Classic Migration Movie:
You gotta watch this one together - Fly Away Home. Jeff Daniels and a young Anna Paquin star in this family movie about a 13-year old girl who figures out how to bravely help a family of geese migrate from Canada south for the winter.