Happy 2018!! We hope everyone had a great holiday season and are excited about the new year. EcoReach has a lot of plans for this year, and we started off strong with our first monthly Public Library Teen Event of 2018.
For this event, we talked all about… birds! Native Georgia birds, to be exact.
We began our activity this week with a lesson about birds that can be found around the world and in Georgia. First, we asked the kids to name any birds that they know. We had a lot of answers, from pigeons and hawks, to penguins and ostriches. And then we had a discussion on the importance of birds and what they do for the environment. Birds help with pest control, seed dispersal, and are very important in food webs around the world.
We also discussed the many ways in which birds communicate and find mates. Using calls and songs! Many scientists and bird enthusiasts use their ears to identify birds in the wild. For our next activity, we used recordings from the Urban Bird Sounds Project, and “met” four different native Georgia birds by looking at pictures, hearing their unique calls, and learning whether they are dimorphic or monomorphic and whether they are migratory or non-migratory. These birds were the northern cardinal, red winged black bird, northern mockingbird, and song sparrow.
Please check out Urban Bird Sounds Project! All of the recordings were written and narrated by students from Codman Academy Charter Public School in Massachusetts.
And finally, how can you encourage wild birds to come to your home? With bird feeders! During our last activity we all made bird feeders using cardboard egg cartons, yarn, and bird seeds that the students took home. We asked the students to take pictures of any cool birds they see at their feeders!
We are looking forward to our next Public Library Teen Event! Please stay tuned for more updates.
