Category: Everything Else

Inside Birding: Episode One, Size and Shape

This video series from All About Birds is designed to teach children the basics to birdwatching.

Here is a summary about this episode from the All About Birds site.

Learn the most fundamental skill for identifying birds: recognizing them by size and shape.

Chris and Jessie show you how to compare different birds and employ your observations to make a confident ID. Join them in the field to practice these techniques on common birds and learn how to distinguish similar species such as Hairy and Downy woodpeckers.

Check out the online bird guide at All About Birds!

Click here for more links from All About Birds.  Page down to Explore More to read about sharpening your ID skills with silhouettes, a video about the American Robin, and honing your ability to ID birds with beak size and shape.

Episode Two: Color Pattern

Episode Summary from the All About Birds Site:

If you’re relying solely on your field guide to make an ID, you might be missing out on easy opportunities to identify the birds you see.

Join Jessie and Chris as they demonstrate the importance of observing a bird’s overall color pattern. Learn to recognize specific features and patterns to identify birds with confidence.

To learn more, go to the All About Birds Site and page down to the Explore More section.  You’ll find links to information about dark and light plumage patterns, key field marks to watch for, the different parts of a bird, and birding the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Florida, an episode location.

All About Birds has the best online bird guide on the web!

Episode Three: Behavior

Summary of this episode from the All About Birds website:

Besides being fun, observing the way a bird behaves can provide critical clues to its identity. With stunning footage from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library, Chris and Jessie show you different types of behaviors to watch for and how to interpret them.

Click here to see links relating to this episode, including the Macaulay Library, behavior clues in greater detail, and birding at Green Cay, an episode location.

Episode Four: Habitat

Here is a summary about Episode Four: Habitat from the All About Birds Website:

Inside this Episode

Join Jessie and Chris as they bird the marshes, cypress swamps, and nearby mangroves of Florida’s Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in pursuit of the elusive Limpkin.

You’ll learn how to employ your observations of habitat to help you determine the probability of finding birds in certain locations and to confirm the identity of the birds you see.

For links and more information, click here. Page down to Explore More to check out the Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge, great birding opportunities in Southern Florida, or to visit eBird for dynamic information on when and where to find birds.

All About Birds has the best online bird guide on the web!

Click here to view downloadable curriculum from CurrClick relating to the study of birds.