Recently, a lot of my outdoor experiences have occurred on my walk to and from the train. This morning was no different. I just left my house and heard some peeping sounds of a bird in the tree that is in the house across from mine and was curious to see what it was. I slowly walked toward the tree so not to make noise or sudden movements that might startle the bird. Peering through the branches and leaves I finally saw this little black and white bird that had striped and spotted pattern on its body and was hanging almost upside-down on the branch. As I reached into my bag to grab my camera the bird flew off to another branch and hopped around a bit before hiding in a higher part of the tree. The pattern on the bird made it hard to see it among the leaves and branches, this is called camouflage. Camouflage is a natural coloring adaptation that allows animals to blend in with its surroundings. Since I couldn't take a picture of the bird with my camera I had to take a mental image, remembering its color, size and how it sounded and how it was hanging on the tree. These details are important when identifying birds.
A good online resource for identifying birds is a website called "WhatBird." WhatBird is like the dichotomous key for trees but instead of asking about leaves and seed shapes it asks about size of the bird, shape of body, shape of bill, color, location, and other identifiers like song or call. This may be complex for a young child to navigate on their own but with a little help from a grownup in asking comparative questions you can identify the bird together. The bird that I saw was a woodpecker but since I could not get a picture of it to identify it more specifically I will have to try to find the bird again.
Have you seen any interesting looking birds? I want to hear what you have found! Come Meet Me Outdoors!
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~ Meet Me Outdoors