Birds

WHICH BIRD?

	In Lois Ehlert’s rhyming Feathers for Lunch (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1996), a black cat – safely equipped with collar and jingling bell – escapes from the house and encounters twelve common backyard birds, among them a cardinal, blue jay, goldfinch, robin, and hummingbird. Kids learn beginning bird identification and the cat ends up with nothing but feathers for lunch. The painted paper illustrations are wonderful. For ages 3-7.
	By Mel Boring, Birds, Nests, and Eggs (Cooper Square Publishing, 2008) is a helpful “Take Along Guide” to help kids identify fifteen different birds, along with a handful of activities (make a bird bath, a blind for bird watching, and a suet feeder) and scrapbook pages for sketches and notes. For ages 5-10.
	Chris Earley’s Birds A to Z (Firefly Books, 2009) covers 26 birds from Anhinga to Zone-tailed Hawk, each with color photographs, reader-friendly background information, and a fact box of vital statistics. For ages 7-10.
	By Annette LeBlanc Cate, Look Up! Bird-watching in Your Own Backyard (Candlewick, 2013) is a quirky, humorous, and delightful introduction to bird-watching, with clever cartoon-style illustrations. Kids will love this. Highly recommended. For ages 7-11.
	Peggy Thomas’s For the Birds (Calkins Creek, 2011) is a picture-book biography of master birder Roger Tory Peterson, illustrated with detailed and realistic paintings by Laura Jacques. For ages 7 and up.
	See Peterson Field Guides for birder Roger Tory Peterson’s famed bird guide series – now also available as apps for iPad, iPhone, or iPod.
	What Bird has detailed bird identification guides (search by state or province, body shape, body size, or color) and a cool video-based Avian Sleuth bird identification game. (Practice your skills.)
	Bird Bingo is an illustrated bingo game featuring 64 different species of birds from around the world, from the emu and kookaburra to the puffin, robin, and mandarin duck. Play and learn your birds! For ages 6 and up.

BIRD SONG

	Maurice Pledger’s Sounds of the Wild: Birds (Silver Dolphin Books, 2010) pairs brilliant 3-D pop-up scenes with the sounds of real birds. Recommended for ages 5 and up; fragile, so use caution with toddlers.
	“Chirp, warble, quack, coo, rattle, screech!” Lita Judge’s Bird Talk (Flash Point, 2012) is a colorful picture-book account of what birds are saying and why. (Finding mates? Defending territory? Keeping an eye on their young?) For ages 5-9.
	Listen to the birds (lots of them, categorized by biological order) at North American Bird Sounds.
	Ana Gerhard’s picture book Listen to the Birds: An Introduction to Classical Music (Secret Mountain, 2013) explains how many classical composers have been inspired by bird song, among them Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Vivaldi. The book includes short biographies of each composer and information the featured birds. An accompanying CD has excerpts of 20 different bird-based musical compositions, among them The Goldfinch, Hens and Roosters, The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, and Dance of the Firebird. For ages 7 and up.

FEEDING THE BIRDS

	Mark Golley’s Make Your Own Bird Food (Bloomsbury, 2017) has forty easy recipes for the birds.
	Ten DIY Bird Feeder Ideas, including instructions for making your own suet cakes and birdseed ornaments.
	A Variety of Bird Feeders has instructions for making five simple feeders, variously using plastic bottles, milk cartons, pine cones, plastic lids (plus a doughnut), and potato chip cans.
	From Artists Helping Children, Easy Birdfeeders, House, and Perches has instructions and patterns for several different kinds of bird feeders and bird snacks, among them pinecone, soda bottle, and milk carton feeders. Also included: a recipe for bird biscuits. Squirrels, of course, like these too.
	On YouTube, listen to Julie Andrews sing Feed the Birds from Mary Poppins.