Exploring Nature with Kids: Favorite Bird Activities {free printables}
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Have you hung your bird feeders and picked out a few good bird guides? Now you’re ready to add some simple bird activities.
Favorite Bird Activities
1. Bird Life List from Handbook of Nature Study (free printable)
We keep this list near our back door bird viewing spot, along with our favorite bird guides. When we spot a new bird, we can easily add it to our list. A regular notebook would work, too.
2. Bird coloring pages from Cornell’s Backyard Feeder Birds Coloring Book (free printable)
These pages are highly accurate, with great questions for older kids. Younger kids can simply color the birds. As Older Brother gets older, I’ve encouraged him to color as accurately as possible.
3. Blank Nature Journal Pages (free printable)
We use these nature journal pages for a host of purposes, and they’re perfect for documenting a special bird sighting. I try to keep a supply of the pages ready and waiting in our nature spot. That way we can grab one and get to work right away when the opportunity presents itself.
Can you spot the cardinal, red bellied woodpecker, goldfinch and red winged blackbird on this nature calendar?
4. Blank Nature Observation Calendars (free printable)
Older Brother is responsible for adding a nature observation to this ongoing calendar every day we do lessons. He often draws a bird we’ve seen at our feeders or on a nature walk.
[Read more about how we use our nature calendars and journal pages here: Free Nature Journal Resources for Kids.]
5. Nesting Materials Project
Hang a mesh produce bag or empty suet cage stuffed with nesting materials in your yard.
More Activities and Resources
- Printable Bird Checklists by Country, Region, State, etc.
- Nature Table – Birds from Handbook of Nature Study: I love this idea of creating a little bird station with books, collected finds and more.
- Build a wooden bird house at Home Depot’s Saturday Workshops for Kids. {FREE}
- Or buy the bird house kit and build it at home.
Nature for Kids
Looking for more great ideas for Exploring Nature with Kids? I’d love for you to follow my Pinterest board Nature for Kids, where I pin all sorts of tips and resources from picture books to nature guides to easy activities, free printables and more.
Do you have a simple, inexpensive idea to add to this list? Share it below!
Check out the other posts in this series about birding with kids:
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