We recently had a large snowstorm and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the different colored birds gather at our feeder. Their beautiful feathers against the bright, white snow left a picture that has lingered in my mind all day and inspired me to see what type of “bird resources” I might find in past issues of HEM.

I discovered, “Feed the Birds” from Rebecca Rupp’s Good Stuff column in the January – February 1997 Issue of Home Education Magazine and as always I found enough resources to create a unit study.

She writes:

It’s fine to feed the birds all year round, but a wonderful time to start is right now, in the heart of winter, when seeds are sparse and those birds who didn’t hightail it south in September really need a helping hand.

She then shares some books for potential bird feeders that I was able to find online or at my local library:

• Birdfeeders, Shelters, and Baths by Edward Baldwin
• Invite a Bird to Dinner: Simple Feeders You Can Make by Beverly Courtney Crook
• The Bird Book & Feeder by Neil Dawe
• Susan Bosnak Science Is… by Susan Bosnak

She also shared these great field guides:

• Peterson guides -A Field Guide to Western Birds and A Field Guide to Birds East of the Rockies by Roger Tory Peterson
• Audubon guides – The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Vol. I by John Bull and John Farrand, Jr. and Vol. II by Miklos D.F. Udvardy
• Everybody’s Everywhere Backyard Bird Book

She also suggests some Dover Publications Coloring Books. These include:

• State Birds and Flowers Coloring Book (Annika Bernhard)
• Fifty Favorite Birds Coloring Book (Lisa Bonforte)
• Tropical Birds Coloring Book (Lucia DeLeiris)
• Birds of Prey Coloring Book (John Green)
• Audubon’s Birds of America Coloring Book
• Audubon sticker book (Audubon Bird Stickers in Full Color)
• 50 full-color bird stickers in an eight-page booklet

She then shared these real life books about kids and their bird experiences all of which I was able to find at our local library.

• The Birdwatcher by Felice Holman’s Elisabeth
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
• Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat
• That Quail, Robert Margaret Stanger (a favorite at our house)

For legendary birds she recommended:

• The Long-Tailed Bear and Other Indian Legends by Natalia Belting
• How the Guinea Fowl Got Her Spots: A Swahili Tale of Friendship by Barbara Knudson
• The Hummingbird King: A Guatemalan Legend by Agentina Palacios
• How the Birds Changed Their Feathers: A South American Indian Folk Tale by Joanna Troughton
• The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks by Katherine Paterson
• Ka-ha-si and the Loon by Terry Cohlene

Continuing down the bird investigation trail, Rupp suggests posting a checklist on the fridge to record the birds that visit. Also in this article she shared Bethump’d With Words, How Math Works by Carol Vorderman, XIT(could not find this one), Catchpenny and Duo.

You can read the entire column here.

Here are some more of my favorite bird resources from around the web:

• Celebrate Urban Birds
• What Bird the Ultimate Bird Guide
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• The Life of Birds- Sir David Attenborough
• Wildbirds.com
• Journey North
• Funschool Bird Watcher
• Natural History Notebooks(Birds)