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Bird watching is such an easy nature activity to do with kids of all ages. You find birds in the backyard, driving down the road, at the beach, and hiking in the woods. Heck, birds are even in the cities. So doing a bird study in your homeschool is a perfect spring or summer unit to do.

Not only are birds easy to find around you, studying birds can cover more than one subject. It can cover science, art, writing, and reading. It all depends on how in-depth you want to dig and your kids’ ages.

Bird Study

One thing I really love about studying birds is that it is inexpensive to do. You don’t need a lot of specialized equipment. All you need is a few helpful items.

Items:

• Notebook or sketch pad
• A bird book, app, or internet site
• Binoculars
• Camera (helpful but optional)

See studying birds is pretty simple. Sometimes simple is best when it comes to kids. Plus, if you are using this for a fun summer activity, you want kids to enjoy it.

Getting Started

First off, you may want to decide a few things.

1. How are you going to record the birds you see
2. How will you figure out what birds you observed

Recording Birds

So, HOW are you going to record the birds you see?

You have a few options:

• draw pictures/sketches of the birds
• take pictures of the birds with a camera
• write them down in a notebook

If you plan on sitting in a field or the grass, drawing or sketching birds may work fine. However, if you are out on a walk, you may want something quicker like writing a description/name of a bird or taking a picture.

Another thought would be to mark off the birds you find in your bird book (sticky notes?) and then record it later. It is quick and doesn’t require writing anything down.

Bird Identification

I have found a few helpful tools in identifying birds.

• All About Birds: This website is by Cornell Lab. It is helpful to use in bird identification. As a side note, they have some cool bird webcams, too.
• Merlin Bird ID: This app is also by Cornell Lab. It is a free app that is available on iOS and Android devices. I have been using it for a while, and it does a nice job. It asks a few questions and then gives you some possible birds that match your description. It also gives a brief description of each bird and the different sounds/calls of the bird.
• Audubon: On the Audubon website, you can find suggestions for good bird books for kids. It is very helpful when trying to find an age-appropriate bird book for your kids. They give a good range of suggestions. Audubon also has a free app that is available on iOS and Android. The app is useful for identifying birds while on the go.
• National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds: As mentioned above, the Audubon lists kid-friendly bird books for kids on their website. However, they do have this “adult” Field Guide to Birds, too. We have always used this book. The pictures are useful, even for kids, to help I.D. local birds. You just need to make sure you buy the book for your region. We have the Eastern Region book.

Next Steps in Your Bird Study

Okay, so you know how you are going to identify and record your birds (pictures, drawings, or listing names). Now what?!

Get outside and start observing!

Decide where you may want to observe birds. You can record birds when you are in the backyard, on a walk, at the park/beach, or out in the woods. Where ever you want. All you need to do is go outside or look out your window.

Make sure to bring something to record the birds you see, a way to ID the birds, and a pair of binoculars. Binoculars are great for getting a better look at the birds. You will see colors and markings much better.

Using Your Information to Make a Bird Study Unit

Here is where you get to decide how in-depth you want to take your bird study. You can do so many different things:

1. Journal/sketch book
2. Research and report
3. Bird log
4. Write stories
5. Make your own mini bird ID books

Journal or Sketch Book

If you want to keep things simple and fun, you may want to keep a bird study journal. The artistic kids in your family will love this. They can draw or sketch the birds and make little notes around the page about the bird. It can be a description of where they saw them or some scientific information on the bird (great for older kids).

Research and Report

Do you want to make your bird study more into a unit study project? If you do, you can have your kids research one or more of the birds they observe. They can research where it lives, what it eats, how many eggs it lays, does it migrate, scientific name, etc. Kids could even look into any threats to the species and find out what people can do to help.

Once the research is complete, kids can find many different ways to share what they learned. Kids can:

• Write a research paper
• Write a simple essay
• Make a diorama of its habitat
• Make posters (physical or digital)
• Slide show presentation
• Collage, sculpture, etc. with a presentation
• Create a news report on their bird or hold an interview
• Dress up as their bird and tell about themselves
• Do a puppet show sharing information on their bird

Those are just a few ways in which kids can share what they’ve learned. It is easy to find a fun way that kids can share their information or pick a format you want them to use to practice certain skills.

Bird Log

A simple way for kids to enjoy studying birds is by keeping a log. Kids get out their notebook and write down the birds they see. It can be just as simple as that.

However, if you want to make things a little more challenging, you can have your kids also record the day, time, and where the birds were seen. Once they have recorded their observations over a period of time, they can analyze their data to see what kind of information they can figure out from what they recorded.

Now, with younger kids, you could also record information with them. A fun way is to take a large sheet of paper and hang it on the wall. Record something simple like how many times you see a certain bird or birds in your backyard. It is a great way to introduce making tallies and creating bar graphs.

No matter what age, collecting data, analyzing it, and creating some kind of graph is a great way to incorporate math into a bird study.

Write Stories

My kids are creative writers. They love making up their own stories. Do yours?

Well if yours do, you can turn your bird study into a fun creative writing project. Maybe you have the kids go out and observe the birds and take notes on what birds they see, where they see them, etc. The kids could then come in after watching the birds and write a wonderful story about what their life would be like as that bird or a story about the birds in the yard.

I think creative writing is a great outlet for kids to share what they learn and observe in the world around them. It is an activity that could be incorporated into a bird study unit.

Mini Bird Identification Book

What better way to put it all together than with kids creating their own bird book. They can put in pictures and information on each of the birds they observed. It can be a mini field guide of their own.

Here is a simple bird study page younger kids can use for making a Bird Identification Book. Just click the download button below.

Putting Your Bird Study Together

So we discussed some useful tools for identifying birds, ways to record your finding, and some suggested ways to use the information collected. Are you all confused?! Don’t worry. I’ll help you out if you need it.

Here you can download a Bird Study Planner to help you get organized. Click the download button below.

You can pick one thing to incorporate in your bird study or multiple ideas from above. Here’s an example.

Sample Bird Study

• STEP 1: Each child will record their bird observations in a notebook. The kids will record what birds they see, the time of day, and where they were located.
• STEP 2: In their bird journals, the kids will make sketches of each new bird and make notes of some interesting facts about the bird.
• STEP 3: Each kid will do further research on one bird and make a Google Slide presentation on it. They need to cite their sources and include a graph of some kind based on their observation log.
• STEP 4: Display and share their bird study journal with others.

In the example above, my kids would incorporate art, science, research skills, computer skills, math (graphing), and writing. You can easily develop a plan that is unique for each child. Or you can do the unit study together as a family. It is very adaptable.

Get Outside

I love the idea of studying birds in the summer. It is a perfect excuse to get outside and incorporate learning into your summer. You can certainly study birds any time of year, though, and it would be interesting to see how your observations change with each season.

So, I encourage you to sneak in a little learning with a fun bird study with your kids. It isn’t costly and is easy enough for any age. I’m sure even the moody teens could have some fun studying birds.

Get outside and get observing!

You might also like the Great Outdoors Activity Packet for Kids. You will find a fun scavenger hunt and so much more.