Backyard Birding

We’ve always been homeschoolers and avid birders.

We’ve loved seeing backyard birds in all the places we’ve lived as a military family: Georgia, Texas, Hawaii, Utah, Germany, and now Ohio.

My kids share my contagious excitement when we see favorites or new birds in our backyard or on nature hikes.

I have proactively taught the kids to be patient, still, and quiet. It’s worth the wait to see a special bird!

We have guide books and apps for IDing song and sight.

We keep journals on our nature finds. We practice our drawing and photography skills.

I have several different bird feeders with different kinds of bird food – nyger, sunflower, safflower, suet, peanuts, oranges and grapes.

We await the hummingbirds each spring.

We also feed the squirrels and raccoons, and even deer. We have baffles and bring the feeders in at night so they’re not destroyed.

We like to visit local parks and ponds to see the water fowl. Feeding bread isn’t healthy. They like peas and greens!

I especially love the owls in our natural areas near our home and the blue herons.

We put up a birdhouse and are waiting to see if we will get a nest and babies.

I notice several nests in the woods in our backyard – squirrels, robins, and more. We see many birds acquiring nesting materials. We love to see the fledglings come to the feeders with their parents.

Sometimes, they get blown down in fall storms and we can study or draw the nests.

Birding helps us appreciate and respect nature, extending to ALL Creator’s wonderful creatures.

Resources:

• The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon by Jacqueline Davies
• The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton W. Burgess
• The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico
• Seabird by Holling C. Holling
• Birds, Nests, & Eggs by Mel Boring
• Feathers: Not Just for Flying by Melissa Stewart
• A Nest Is Noisy by Dianna Hutts Aston
• Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O’Brien
• The Young Birder’s Guide to Birds of North America by Bill Thompson III
• Bird Trivia Game “What Bird Am I?” – The Ultimate Educational Trivia Card Game Featuring Over 300 Cards
• Fly Away Home
• The Big Year
• A Birder’s Guide To Everything
• Merlin app
• Birds of Ohio (or whichever state you live in)
• Good Birders Still Don’t Wear White by Lisa A. White and Jeffrey A. Gordon
• Sibley’s Birding Basics: How to Identify Birds, Using the Clues in Feathers, Habitats, Behaviors, and Sounds
• Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding by Scott Weidensaul
• Handbook of Bird Biology by Irby J. Lovette and John W. Fitzpatrick
• The Genius of Birds AND The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think by Jennifer Ackerman
• The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human AND Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World by Noah Strycker
• Lost Among the Birds: Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year by Neil Hayward
• To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession by Dan Koeppel
• Kingbird Highway: The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder by Kenn Kaufman
• Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans by John Marzluff and Tony Angell 
• The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik
• Life List: A Woman’s Quest for the World’s Most Amazing Birds by Olivia Gentile
• Birding on Borrowed Time by Phoebe Snetsinger
• John James Audubon: The Making of an American by Richard Rhodes
• All Things Reconsidered: My Birding Adventures by Roger Tory Peterson
• Wild America: The Record of a 30,000 Mile Journey Around the Continent by a Distinguished Naturalist and His British Colleague by Roger Tory Peterson
• Birdwatcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson by Elizabeth Rosenthal

Notebooking:

• Montessori Bird Activities
• Bird Printables
• Bird Print Pack
• Bird Fun Pack
• Bird Unit
• Bird Nature Study
• Bird Fun Printables

Bird study notebooking pages for a variety of topics (bird log pages, parts of a bird diagram pages, pages for the study of eyes, ears, beaks, feet, facts, feathers, flight/wings, homes/nests, and songs/calls) plus individual bird notebooking pages for over 170 birds and bird families. Also includes blank templates to add more of your own topics and birds!

Get yours today!

You might also like:

• Hummingbird Unit Study
• Eagle Unit Study
• Quail Unit Study
• Winter Birds Unit Study
• Signs of Spring
• Favorite Nature Books for Kids

What’s your favorite bird?

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