Observing nesting birds in the wild can be an incredible, but not always easily accessible, experience.  Birds often find a hidden or high location that helps keep their eggs and young safe from predators. But you don’t have to miss out or climb a high tree to see hawks, herons, and ospreys raising their young:  Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bird Cams bring these birds right into your classroom!

With the Bird Cams, teaching about bird habitat needs, predator-prey interactions, and animal behavior is exciting and memorable. The live Bird Cams document courtship, egg-laying, incubation, chick-rearing, and fledging, providing students an exciting window on breeding bird biology in a unique and fun way. To help you structure your use of our streaming cams, we’re now offering a free download of our new lesson series: Get a Bird’s Eye View of Nesting Birds! The series includes five lessons that are designed to help you introduce science topics, guide student curiosity and inquiry, and help students apply concepts as they observe birds in their own neighborhood.

Bird Cam Birds
On a light pole nearly 80 feet above the ground you’ll find the nest belonging to Ezra and Big Red, a pair of Red-tailed Hawks. Red-tailed Hawks typically build their nest on some sort of very high perch, like the crown of a tall tree, a cliff ledge, or even a tall apartment building. Taking your class to observe nesting Red-tailed Hawks would certainly be one difficult field trip to plan! But with the Bird Cams, you can bring in live views of these birds of prey as they preen, feed, and raise their young high atop their perch.

Other cams are focused on a nesting pair of Great Blue Herons. Right in the middle of Sapsucker Woods Pond, our “backyard” here at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the herons are nesting in a huge dead white oak. Their  nest  is nearly four feet across and a foot deep. You can watch them every day as they fix up their nest and incubate their eggs. After they hatch, Great Blue Heron chicks remain in the nest for 7 to 8 weeks, so you’ll get to watch as the chicks grow, gobble fish, and develop from sparsely feathered hatchlings to fledglings getting ready to start life apart from their parents.

Highlights

If you miss a key moment at one of the nests, such as the first chick hatching or the drama of a Great Horned Owl attack, there are recorded clips of special events so you can go back and watch anytime. This clip of Ezra bringing prey to Big Red in the rain is just one of the many fascinating behaviors captured on the cams that you can find on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology YouTube channel.

One of the best things about the Bird Cams is that you can have students watch the birds at home as well. Have them write down observations they make or questions that they have as they watch. Some of your students might even start watching the cams just for fun!

Download your Get a Bird’s Eye View of Nesting Birds! lesson series today, and see what these amazing birds can help you teach! Please let us know in the comments what your students think about the Cornell BirdCams and BirdSleuth lessons.

Mother’s Day arrives at the height of spring, when the weather is nice, the leaves and blossoms are budding on trees, and the insects are out again.  Food is plentiful once more and the birds, migratory and non-migratory alike, get to work on their nests. Once the nest is built, it provides a safe haven for developing young.  Most songbirds will spend about a month on the nest incubating their young and then raising their nestlings. But once our feline pets spot a nest, or hear the peeping of young, they are likely to seize any chance they get to stalk birds. Spring and summer is the most vulnerable time for birds and their young.

“What bird was that? Do you know?” – These  kittens  watch birds excitedly from inside the house.

The fact that cats are a non-native, predatory animal is easy to forget when your feline friend runs up to you with big eyes, purring and begging for attention.  In addition to rodents, cats prey on wild birds, especially in spring when migrants are back and fledglings prepare for their first flight.  In fact, a recent article reported that cat-caused mortality far exceeds deaths from other sources such as pesticides and wind turbines.

In addition to the millions of domestic cats, there are innumerably more feral and stray cats that sustain themselves entirely on what they hunt and kill themselves.  This makes it hard to determine if the threat to birds is actually greater. Nevertheless, research has found from counts of household cats and estimates of strays, that cats are responsible for the deaths of between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds a year in the U.S.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reported that in the state of Wisconsin alone, cats contribute to the death of up to 39 million birds a year (see their fact sheet here). Outdoor domestic cats (which are estimated to number around 47 million in the U.S.) contribute to nearly a third of the estimated bird deaths.

This mother Mourning Dove and her nestling rest peacefully in the nest. (Photo by Meddaugh Photography)

Keep in mind, this isn’t new information–We’ve known cats have a huge impact on birds for a while. A 2007 article in BirdScope features a graph created from citizen science data that indicates which species are most commonly affected.

Even if it’s just for a day, you can help keep  birds safe by keeping pet cats indoors.  Let your cat watch the birds through the window  and do the mama birds a favor this Mother’s Day!

While Joshua and Brayden focused on birdseed in their study, Alexandra investigated whether birds preferred fruit or seeds.

16 years of BirdSleuth Investigator

Is that expensive birdseed really worth the extra cost? According to a study conducted by 7^th graders Joshua and Brayden from Wilson, NY, pricey birdseeds are not always as much of a rip-off as they may seem to be. First, they designed an experiment that would reveal which type of seed the birds preferred. Then, they put out two identical bird feeders, one with an expensive birdseed and the other with a cheap birdseed, and recorded how much seed birds ate from each of the feeders. When they analyzed the data they collected, they discovered that our feather friends have expensive taste! The birds ate more than twice as much of the expensive birdseed than the cheap birdseed.

In recognition of their hard work, Joshua and Brayden’s report was published in the 2012 issue of BirdSleuth Investigator, BirdSleuth’s student publication. When the publication first began in 1998, it was called Classroom BirdScope and had a newspaper-style design. A lot has changed since 1998, so we’ve modernized BirdSleuth Investigator by making it available for free download on our website and printing it on high quality, glossy, magazine-style paper. Even with this increase in quality, printed copies are just $1 each when you purchase 10 or more so that you can get a copy for each student in your class to take home.

Oh my! How BirdSleuth Investigator has changed over the years.

Much has changed for our student publication over these past 16 years, but it’s mission remains the same: to motivate and inspire students to investigate and explore the natural world around them. Students of any age can submit their own bird-related work to BirdSleuth Investigator. Seeing their work printed in a real publication is extremely rewarding and exciting for students, and helps them to realize that their work is truly important.

Educators are finally realizing that the best way for students to learn science is by doing science. The Next Generation Science Standards specifically identify “planning and carrying out investigations” as an essential part of learning about science. Here at BirdSleuth, we believe that this really is the most effective way to for students to learn science, which is why our Investigating Evidence curriculum is focused on inquiry based learning and teaching students how to conduct their own scientific investigations.

Experimental studies are just one of the many forms that BirdSleuth Investigator submissions can take. Camilla, a 5^th grader from Buffalo, NY submitted a fun science writing piece about aggressive birds. To add even more interest and depth to her work, she included tables and drawings to accompany her writing. Middle school student Quaran from Bristol, PA got his poem about an encounter between a cat and some blue jays published in the fall 2011 issue of BirdSleuth Investigator. What will your students contribute? We’ve published drawings, photos of bird models, crossword puzzles, and more in the BirdSleuth Investigator.  We look forward to seeing what your students have to share!

Lesson Summary

Some birds travel up to 500 miles a day, some breed in the extreme winters of the Antartic, and others have nests not much wider than a quarter.  Even when looking just at birds, it’s hard to deny that our planet is home to some pretty awesome creatures!

Two owls having a hoot on Earth Day. (Photo by: David Stephens)

Since the birth of Earth Day in 1970, April 22^nd has served as a day for people to celebrate and improve the biodiverse world we live in. During this Earth Week consider the ways you can act to help kids make a positive impact.  Taking action can be as simple as encouraging kids to turn off the lights when they leave a room or as large as organizing an event in your community.  Remember(and make sure to remind kids) that no matter how big or little your actions are- your actions make a difference!

Whatever you choose to do this week we hope you get youth outside with the birds, enjoying the sunlight, and celebrating nature in your community.  Here are three simple, yet impactful ideas for how to pitch in this earth week:

1.) Bird-proof your windows

Gather your students and pull out the arts and crafts supplies!

Don’t be afraid to get creative with the window decorations!

Within the US alone, scientists estimate that millions of birds are killed or injured every year from crashing into windows. Often, the glass plates of windows either reflect the natural surroundings or appear invisible to birds, confusing them and resulting in collisions.  If you have a bird feeder, ensure the feeder is farther than 30 feet of a window or within 3 feet.  Whether you have a feeder or not, there are a couple easy and fun ways to give the windows visibility needed to keep our feathered friends from injury:

• Make window decals. Take out your paper, makers, and tape for this idea and get kids drawing their favorite birds or cut out hawk silhouettes! Place the artwork on the inside of your windows and space the artwork no more than 4 inches apart to ensure effectiveness.
• Add stripes. Stripe the windows using masking tape or ABC BirdTape. In order to be effective, horizontal stripes must be spaced no more than two inches apart, and vertical stripes no more than four inches apart.
• Paint the windows. With washable paint of course! Washable paint, such Tempera paint is available at most craft stores. A basic and effective design for the inside of your windows again is stripes but feel free to allow the kids to get artsy. Whatever you choose to paint, be sure to keep in mind the spacing guidelines mentioned in the points above.

You can find more information on window collisions and ways to prevent them here.

2.) Carry out a coastal cleanup

Rally the troops and get outdoors for hands on community watershed restoration!

Unfortunately many of us have seen this image before. Luckily clean-ups can be very effective! (Photo by Jessica Kirste)

Coastal areas make up only 10% of the land in the United States and are essential habitats to 173 birds species according to the latest State of the Birds report. The report nods to habitat degradation and human disturbance as a couple of the top reasons for recent declines in coastal bird populations.

Plastic in particular poses a great hazard to coastal birds. Littering costal areas through the forms of trash, pellets, and even rubber duckies, plastic can take between 500 to 1,000 years to decompose.  Birds and other wildlife often mistaken plastic bits for food. If they don’t choke on the plastic, the buildup clogs their digestive system.  The existence of plastic debris is not a new problem.  Worst of all, plastic bits harming the birds have been found even in some of the most remote areas of the world.

Cleanups at beaches, estuaries, or lakes and rivers in your local watersheds can make a positive impact on coastal habitats and are a great way for all kids to develop a sense of stewardship and connection to community. Find a cleanup in your area or check out what other organizations are already doing:

• The Surfrider Foundation focuses on keeping costal areas and beaches clean and safe.  Join their efforts to keep the beach clean and find a chapter near you. http://www.surfrider.org/
• Partner with the Ocean Conservancy and sign up to clean up! If you don’t find a clean up already set near you, start one yourself:  http://www.signuptocleanup.org/
• Not by the ocean? The US Environmental Protection Agency offers great resources and direction for communities looking to actively keep their watersheds clean: http://water.epa.gov/action/adopt/

3.) Submit observations to citizen science projects

Get outside, make some observations about birds, and then send in your findings!

There are many ways to make observations for science.

By participating in citizen science projects like eBird, kids can contribute to real scientific research.   eBird allows scientists to identify patterns in bird populations and collect data on where the birds are.  This ability to monitor them leads to bird conservation efforts because the more we learn about birds, the better we can know how best to protect them. It also allows scientists to harness the observations of people all over the country to identify patterns in increasing or decreasing bird populations like the Rusty Blackbird.

Thanks to people all over the country submitting data into eBird we are able to track the patterns of the Rusty Blackbird.

So, by participating kids not only get outside and looking at their local feathered neighbors, but they also become part of very important bird monitoring research! Remember earlier in this post when we mentioned The State of the Birds report? The 2011 report featured maps and data from eBird. It’s pretty powerful to be able to show kids that  data they contribute goes into a national report that scientists use to guide conservation efforts.

If you are an interested in educator support for eBird, we have a free download to help: eBird with Groups or consider ordering your own Most Wanted Birds kit.

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Did we get your ideas flowing? Keep in mind, there are endless possibilities to how you can get youth outside and making a positive difference in your community.  You could plant a tree, reuse empty containers to build bird feeders and bird baths, bypass the bus and take a field trip in the schoolyard, attend an event at your local nature conservancy, or start a garden.  Whatever you do, get outside and get going because the week of Earth Day is the perfect time to start!

Already participated in Earth Day? Have something exciting planned? We’d love to for you to share what you are doing with your students in the comments below!

These birds must be so closely associated with spring because they return from their migration when spring begins, right? Well, not exactly. It turns out that many American Robins don’t even migrate at all (and see the range map, at left). Instead, they hide out in the trees in the United States and southern Canada, enduring the blizzards and ice storms of winter. They survive by eating berries and shivering to keep warm. It’s lack of food more than anything else that causes some robins to migrate further south for the winter. If they have enough food to survive, robins will sometimes stay up north despite the harsh winter weather.

Even though some robins may still be lurking in the trees in your neighborhood, you’re much less likely to see them in the winter than in the spring. Since food is often sparse in the winter, the robins need to conserve energy by spending less time flying and hopping around in the cold.  Some robins deceptively stick around for the winter; they are a sign of spring because we only start noticing them when the weather gets nice and they are in our yards seeking worms and other foods as the weather warms.

Have the robins come out from their winter retreats or returned from their migration to your neighborhood? Take your kids out to listen to spring bird songs using our April Feathered Friends lesson and see if you can identify the songs of robins and other birds, or get out those binoculars and go bird watching.

Here is a list of baby bird FAQs for you to share with friends, family, and students:

Q. I found a baby bird on the ground, should I take it in and feed it?

A. When there’s a helpless baby bird lying on the ground, most people’s first instinct is to take it in and try to raise it. Many people don’t realize that the vast majority of “abandoned” baby birds are perfectly healthy fledglings that don’t need your help at all! Fledglings are usually fluffy and able to hop around and tightly grip your finger or a twig. If the baby bird you’ve found fits this description, it’s completely normal for it to be hanging out on the ground and you should just let it be.

In some cases, younger baby birds, called nestlings, fall out of the nest before they’re ready to leave. These birds usually have only a few sparse feathers and are incapable of hopping around or grabbing on to a twig. In this case, the nest in surely close by and you should carefully place the baby bird back in it. As long as the bird isn’t injured, it should be just fine once it’s back in the nest.

Under no circumstances should a baby bird  be fed things like milk or bread.

Q. If I handle a baby bird, won’t its parents pick up my scent and abandon it?

A. Fortunately, that’s just a myth. Parent birds don’t recognize their young by smell—most birds don’t even have a good sense of smell.

Q. Why do birds leave the nest before they can fly?

A. Usually, it’s to their advantage to leave as soon as they can. Predators can easily find a nest full of squawking baby birds, and nests can host parasites. Parent birds work very hard to get their young out of the nest as quickly as possible.

Q. I accidentally spooked a nesting mother. She flew away and hasn’t returned. Should I try to hatch the eggs myself?

A. In addition to being illegal to posses bird eggs from birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, hatching eggs is a very delicate process! Unless you’re an expert with the right equipment, achieving the conditions essential for hatching eggs is nearly impossible. The temperature and humidity must be exactly right and the eggs must be rotated periodically. If you tried to hatch them yourself, the hatchlings might have grave deformities, if they even survive at all. For these reasons, many wildlife rehabilitators and nature centers don’t even try to hatch eggs, so you should check to see about this before bringing eggs to potential helpers.

Luckily, mother birds usually return to the nest eventually, but it might take a little while. They have a lot invested in their eggs and are unlikely to just abandon them altogether.

A note about “nests” in your classroom:

Teachers often hope to use nests that are old or abandoned for use in the classroom, or find that students will bring these “goodies” in. You should know that possessing the nest of a migratory bird is not legal without the proper permits, according to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It is best to just leave nests  in nature, where they belong.

The good news is that you and your students can observe nests and nesting birds without even leaving the classroom! During nesting season, you can stream video from our high-definition “Nest Cams” and use our accompanying Cams4Educators activity series to teach about nesting behavior. Additionally, the May lesson of our Feathered Friends lesson series is all about nesting and learning about this subject with the real life examples seen through the Nest Cams.

 Want to know more?

• For an extensive list of FAQs not only on baby birds, but on sick and injured birds, migrating birds, and more, check out the All About Birds FAQ page. This page is full of great information to share with your students so that they can go home and teach their families how to make decisions that are good for birds.

In addition to planting fruits and vegetables, you can plant colorful and fragrant nectar-rich flowers to attract butterflies and bees.  These insects will help pollinate your garden and attract birds too! You can also attract birds directly by planting things like sunflowers, thistles, and berries. Especially important are plants that are native to your area. Bringing birds to your garden adds a whole new dimension to its teaching potential, as birds are exciting to watch and demonstrate a variety of scientific concepts (habitat, food web, diversity and adaptations… just to name a few). Whether you have a garden already or are thinking about planting one—do it for the birds, for the bees, for the butterflies, and most importantly, for your students!

Background: Bird Habitats

Like every living thing, birds need a habitat- a place that provides the food, water, cover, and space it needs to survive. If a bird can’t find these things in your area, it won’t live there.

Sunflowers are good for bugs and birds!  Photo by Michael LoRusso, Flickr

This school garden in San Francisco has a great water source for birds!  Photo by Kevin Krejci, Flickr

Take it Outside

The first step in designing a bird garden is to evaluate the space from a bird’s perspective. As a group, go outside and take a look at your school garden. Either in groups or individually, make lists or drawings of the food, water, and cover that birds would find in the garden. Consider using these “Improve Habitat” Journal Pages to map your habitat and structure this investigation. When the students return from their trip outside, wrap up by asking them to share what they found on their search:

• Does our garden provide the basic necessities—food, water, cover—that birds need to survive? If not, which are lacking?
• Which bird species do you think might visit this garden?
• Did you see any birds? What were they doing?
• How has our habitat been modified by people? What effects (positive and negative) do you think these have had on the species that live here?
• Is there something we could do to make our garden a better habitat for birds? (For example, hang up bird feeders or plant fruit-bearing trees or shrubs; put in a birdbath; clean up trash in the schoolyard; put up nest boxes; plant native plants.)

Create a list of potential  improvements on the board and consider making some of these garden improvements. To go further, monitor the birds that visit before and after the changes and try to determine what impacts your improvements have made.  Our Investigating Evidence curriculum will help guide these investigations, making your school garden the perfect place for inquiry!

You might also like:

• Our Most Wanted Birds curriculum will help your group identify birds and monitor them through the eBird citizen science project.
• Bird Bingo and Habitat Scavenger Hunt Cards are a fun an easy way to engage kids in learning about habitat.
• Use a citizen-science project such as eBird or YardMap to help you monitor your school garden.
• Find out how you can get a free feeder from BirdSleuth!
• Find out more about your local habitat, what plants are native to your area, ways that you can make positive changes at this Yardmap guide.

Keep in mind that your group can still be successful bird watchers without binoculars. For example, if you live in the city or have feeders to draw in birds, these feathered visitors might be easiest to see and count without binoculars!  However, if you’ve gone out bird watching and the young people in your group were frustrated since the birds were just too far away to identify, you might want to consider investing in binoculars. You might have questions ranging from “which kind should I buy, and how can I afford them?” to “how do we use and store them?” Here are some tips and guidelines for how to get started with using binoculars on your class bird walks:

Choose the right type of binoculars

Once you start shopping around for binoculars, you’ll see that they will be described by some combination of numbers, like 8×50 or 10×25. These numbers tell you the magnification (first number) and lens diameter (second diameter). So what kind of combination should you be looking for?

It’s easy to think the greater magnification is automatically better, but as it turns out a lower magnification might be best for beginners, especially young people. This is because increasing magnification reduces your field of view, which is the area that you see through your binoculars. This can make finding birds through the binoculars more difficult. We recommend a magnification of 7 or 8.

Lens diameter is less crucial, but should definitely be taken into consideration. Larger lenses will let in more light and provide a brighter, more detailed image, but do consider the fact that large lenses can get bulky and expensive. A lens size of between 25 and 40 should work well for you and your class.

You get what you pay for—so try to invest in quality!

There are plenty of cheap plastic binoculars out there that you can find for under $10.  However, while it is tempting to go for the cheapest option you can find, keep in mind that these cheaper binoculars are likely to break quickly and they provide a very poor image. Instead, try to get the best quality binoculars you an afford, because it is more likely that you will be able to use them with your students year after year.  There are a number of good-quality options in the $100-price range, and some binoculars even come with a lifetime guarantee. We’ve also been told by several BirdSleuth teachers that they got great deals through Eagle Optics when they told them they were teachers. Whatever brand you buy, consider: What is your budget?  And is it better for you to spend your budget on fewer but higher-quality binoculars this year?

Storing and Sharing your Binoculars

One BirdSleuth teacher purchased a set of binoculars so that each student could use a pair.  He found a big tool box on wheels and lined it with foam for extra padding. The wheels made for easy transportation… they can roll the case right out of the classroom to the school bus. When they go on their yearly wetland field trip, the case can fit on the bus floor between seats or up on an empty seat. He discovered that removing the binocular cases and lens caps helped him keep things simple (and avoided lost lens caps), and also allowed him to easily see the condition of each pair of binoculars without opening individual cases. Other teachers have etched numbers into the binoculars, caps, and cases and created a sign-out sheet so that each student is responsible for the safe return of all supplies.

Familiarize your students with the parts of binoculars and how to use them.

Binoculars are useful science tools, and students should know how to use and respect them. Show your students the different parts of binoculars with this diagram. Knowing the names of the major parts will be important when you teach them how to adjust and use the binoculars.

Before you hand the binoculars out to the class, demonstrate the proper way to adjust them. Start by holding the binoculars up to your eyes and “bending” them up and down until the eye cups are both comfortably positioned over your eyes. This will allow the eyes to work together so you see one image rather than two. Next, adjust the diopter (if you have one) so that the binoculars are focused for your particular eyes. Everyone has different vision, and vision often even varies from one eye to the other! Here’s how to customize the focus for your eyes:

1. Locate the diopter. It will be on either the left or the right eye cup, if you have one. It usually looks like a ring and is marked with a + and a – sign.
2. Look at a stationary object through your binoculars while covering the lens that has the diopter with your hand.
3. Use your other hand to adjust the center focus knob until the object is as clear and sharp-looking as possible.
4. Cover the other lens (on the side without the diopter) with your hand and adjust the diopter knob until the object looks as clear as possible. Now you should be able to see objects clearly when looking through both lenses.

(These images and instructions are adapted from the BirdSleuth: Most Wanted Birds Resource Guide.)

Taking it Outside

Binoculars are extremely helpful for getting a closer look at a bird, but are not so helpful for first spotting one. Some students immediately try to raise the binoculars to their eyes and look around for birds, but that’s a mistake. To find a bird, it is best to start by looking for movement with your naked eyes so you have a full field of vision. Once you see a bird that you want to look at more closely, don’t take your eyes off it! Raise the binoculars to your eyes while keeping your sight focused on the bird. This will make it much easier to find the bird through your binoculars. With the bird in view, adjust the center focus by turning it left and right until the bird is clear.

A good practice exercise for your class is to print out a large image of a bird silhouette (about the size of a real bird) and do a little “target practice” with it. If you want, you can add some text to the page that your students will have to focus on in order to read. Have your students stand in a line and then walk about 15 feet away from them. Hold up the printed image of the bird silhouette and ask your students if they can focus on the image with their binoculars. Once everyone has focused on the silhouette, talk a few steps back and ask them to focus again. Then repeat, this time walking forward several steps. Once your students master this, they are ready to use their skills on some real birds—enjoy!

 Do you use binoculars with groups of young people? What tips and recommendations do you have?  Please add them as comments, below.

During the tournament, 16 of North America’s favorite birds will go head to head every weekday through four rounds – with the Tweet 16, the Airborne 8 and the Feathered 4 all leading up to the coveted March Migration Madness “Chirpionship.”  We now have all 16 contenders for the 2013 poll and the tournament just begun. Check out the other nominees and vote  on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Facebook page.

Why vote for the Peregrine Falcon?  The species is powerful and fast-flying, and definitely a “come-back kid.” Hunters of medium-sized birds, Peregrine Falcons drop down on prey from high above in a spectacular stoop,reaching speeds of up to 200 mph!  While they were virtually eradicated from eastern North America due to pesticides such as DDT, they have made an incredible rebound and are now regularly seen in many large cities and coastal areas. The Peregrine Falcon also has one of the longest migrations of any North American bird: tundra-nesting falcons winter in South America, and may move 25,000 km (15,500 mi) in a year! To learn more about this magnificent species, visit our All About Birds page.

In 2011, the beloved Black-capped Chickadee took top honors. Last year, it was the Snowy Owl.  Can BirdSleuth’s bird go all the way?  We hope so… please vote for the Peregrine Falcon!