Posted: January 25, 2024
Winter's for the birds! No, really! Winter is for the birds... and for all the humans (adults and children) who are interested in birds and in helping them thrive.
Homemade apple bird feeders hanging outside.
Every year, bird enthusiasts try to get a sense of how healthy and varied their bird populations are through a bird count. The 27th annual Great Backyard Bird Count will be held Friday, February 16th through Monday, February 19th (for more information check out birdcount.org). But don't wait until February to get the kids around you excited about birds. In Pennsylvania, there are about thirty-five different species of birds that visit backyard feeders.
You can invite your feathered friends to your space with some feeders right now. Be forewarned, you may also delight neighborhood squirrels or mice. It’s pretty amusing to see all the critters who want to eat the seed that you provide!
Jennifer Shiley and Cheryl Peterman, two Penn State Master Gardeners of Cumberland County, led Better Kid Care staff in making a pinecone bird feeder and an apple birdseed ornament during our holiday gathering in December. We enjoyed taking a break to create and observe. We thought preschoolers, school-agers, and their teachers might also enjoy this activity!
The easiest feeder is a "classic" design. Invite children to spread peanut butter or vegetable shortening on a pinecone. Once the cone is covered with something tacky, the children can roll the cone in birdseed. Use a lunch tray or plate to contain the seeds and make this task a bit less messy to clean up.
A second design is to scoop out the center pulp of an apple using a melon baller (or even a metal spoon). Mix peanut butter/vegetable shortening and a seed mix in a separate bowl. Once combined scoop the seed mixture into the scooped apple bowl. This can then be strung and tied to a tree branch. Some of the team learned that if it is not tied, squirrels will take it quickly to their nest for a lovely dinner! An alternate is to save citrus half-rinds to create a similar feeder.
Educators should check the birdseed packaging to ensure it doesn’t contain nuts before purchasing it and use vegetable shortening instead of peanut butter for nut-free classrooms.
Here are basic instructions for making these feeders:
- Pinecone Bird Feeder Activity, by California State University, Chico
- Apple Birdseed Ornament Activity, by Natural Beach Living
For further reading, please reference these two Penn State Extension articles:
Related children's books
Extend the learning and excitement about birds by borrowing books from your local library. Display these in your science area, on a windowsill that looks out at the feeders, or read them at circle time.
Teachers can often preview a book on YouTube to see what the content is like. Children may enjoy listening to a read-aloud online version of a book while an educator is helping children with toileting or getting lunches on the table.
- Birding for Babies: Backyard Birds: A Numbers Book by Chloe Goodhart (toddler+)
- A Kid’s Guide to Backyard Birds by Eliza Berkowitz (school-aged)
- Bird Count by Susan Edwards Richmond (school-aged)
- Rosa's Big Bird Feeder Experiment by Jessica Spanyol (school-aged)
- English and Spanish Youtube reading by LCH Health and Community Services
- Those Darn Squirrels by Adam Rubin (school-aged)
- The Bird Feeder by Andrew Larsen (loss of a grandparent)
- Bird Watchers and Bird Feeders by Glenn O. Blough (OST)
- Look Up!: Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard by Annette LeBlanc Cate (OST)
Educators can set up a birdwatching station in front of a window with binoculars, a bird identification chart, paper, and colored pencils for drawing what was observed. On an iPad, have the Merlin Bird ID app by Cornell Lab open to identify a bird, hear a bird's song, and get additional facts. If your classroom does not have access to a window to view wildlife, there are live bird feeder cameras available on YouTube like Cornell Lab Bird Cams. You can search for live cameras local to your area, too. Better Kid Care has a window frame drawing template to capture observations.
Don't fret about the winter weather! It’s a great time to focus on the critters who stay around all year long. Enjoy the feathered friends. Keep tallies of who visits the feeder. It will open children’s eyes to their winter world in a whole new way!
