Birding 101

It would seem we have an aviary in our backyard with the number and variety of birds we see on a regular basis. Many of the birds are common, ones that even I can recognize at first sight, birds like the American Robin, the Cardinal, the Mockingbird, etc. Others are a bit more difficult for me to distinguish. For example, those darned woodpeckers who hammer on the tree right outside my window--it took me awhile to figure out that the red feathers on their head were not their trademark. Indeed, they are not Red-headed woodpeckers at all. It is the faint rosy tint to their belly that distinguishes these birds as Red-bellied Woodpeckers. And then there are the owls . . . they all look so cute and scary to me that even after three sightings, I have not a clue what type of owl they are. So, to help us attract and identify birds, the kids and I play a little game which involves the use of my computer.

Cornell University's ornithology department has a website that details every bird of North America and includes with the bird's description, a picture of the bird and a sound bite of it's song. Hoping to attract birds and so more easily identify them, we take my laptop to the backyard, turn up the volume as loud as it will go, and we play the calls of the birds. What a blast! Our first attempt was to attract a bird that we knew we could identify, just to see if it would come. So, we played the song of the American Robin, and within seconds we had two robins within a few feet of us. We tried it again with the Mockingbird, and sure enough, it worked!

Recently, Ella came upon a beginning birder's handbook, which grandpa bought the kids several years ago. The book details all sorts of projects that children can undertake to better acquaint themselves with their own backyard birds. She was particularly interested in the "bird buffet." The idea of the project is basically to make a diverse buffet of food so as to attract all different species of birds. We followed the directions and here is what we came up with:

And while I know it's hard to believe, given how enticing the buffet appears, we attracted not a single bird. And Jude was watching all day . . .

Still, the book has great pictures and all sorts of interesting projects. I think we'll give it another try this week.