Challenge 3 - Writing

Learning intentions

I can make interesting observations, research and write about birds.

I can read and listen to work by other authors.

I can reflect on my writing process, practice and develop my writing.

Success Criteria

I have written, drafted and worked on a piece of writing about birds. This can be a poem, lyrics, article or story.

I have learnt more about birds through researching and observing birds for my writing project.

I can appreciate and discuss different types of writing by other authors.

I can appreciate and reflect upon my own writing processes.

Challenge 3 - Writing

Everyone can be an author and writing is something we practice and reflect upon.

We want you to enjoy experimenting with language, character, and ideas. In 400 words or less, you can submit writing in poetry, fiction, lyrics, an article or other writing form.

You can experiment with rhythm, the sound of words, and try out new vocabulary. Read your writing aloud to check the pace, flow and sound. Read it to a family member or friend to see how they interpret a sentence, paragraph or story. A reader may notice confusing elements and mistakes more easily than the writer.

Cliff face near Wattamolla, Royal National Park.

Different landscapes are inhabited by different species of birds. What birds do you hear by the sea? How would it feel to live on the sea for days at a time like an albatross? Or to live on the cliff tops like an eagle?

The landscape is a key part of a bird's life. You can write about landscape. Night and day, seasons and weather events in the landscape make it dramatic and changeable.

We are looking for

We will appreciate your writing piece about a bird (of 400 words or less) and consider the following:

Quality of writing. This means that your writing, has been proofed, spell-checked and edited. That the writing has a good flow, structure and pace.
Depth of bird knowledge and interest.
Originality and flair. You may write from different perspectives, and in an interesting way to represent the world of a bird. Your style of writing can be experimental and the way you present your writing can also be interesting.

A teacher, family member or friend can help to check your grammar and sentence structure, and can encourage you to try out new words. We do want the writing to be from your imagination, thinking and research, and in your own words. We have some writing prompts below.

We also welcome accompanying illustrations, which you can include in the Artistry challenge.

Kirli Saunders, author of Bindi and many other books, speaks powerfully about the poetry of place and how she personifies landscape in her writing.

Try out some of these writing activities to embolden poetry and place in landscape . You can observe a landscape, begin to know how it changes through the seasons and how birds move around and live within a landscape.

You can watch other author talks at Everyone's an Author from Technology 4 Learning, NSW Department of Education.

Ursula Dubosarsky, author and children's laureate 2020-2021, and Laureate Magpie, speaks about using your writing superpowers and selecting words.

Extend your writing words with this Wonderful Words guide and find precise meanings to evoke a bird's experience and character in your writing.

Writing ideas

If you want to write about birds you can explore the theme in any way you like.

You can play with these ideas, or fly off in your own direction with your bird words. You could write:

a poem about bird migration
a story from a bird's perspective
a relationship between birds and other animals
a non-fiction article about a bird, this could be based on your nature journal observations
a bird based adventure - from when birds began

Read widely and experiment with writing starters to help your writing develop.

A great white egret standing by reeds and mangrove saplings on a riverbank. Great white egrets nest in the trees by the wetlands. It is important to keep dogs on a leash near bird nesting areas and feeding areas as they can scare or injure birds and their chicks. Cats hunt most at night so keeping them indoors at night will reduce their impact on native birds and animals.

An extraordinary bird, the pelican has the longest beak of any bird alive today, and roosts near open water where they can catch fish and small aquatic animals. The pelican is one of the stars of the novel Stormboy written by Colin Thiele, published in 1964. Stormboy is an Australian classic and features a boy's friendship with a pelican. The descriptions of the landscape of the Coorong in South Australia is dynamic and enlivening. You can GoogleEarth and fly over the landscape like a pelican.

Writing prompts

Perspective - sit in the garden under a tree and look up into the branches in the canopy. Notice all the shapes and curves in the tree limbs. Find hollows, spaces and places to land and to nest in, as if you are a bird. Notice the shapes and faces in clouds. See how the birds wheel about and the different ways birds fly.

How does the bird you are observing find their food? Parrots have excellent vision and can see flowering and fruiting trees from a distance. Hunting birds like owls, hawks and falcons can use superb eyesight and speed to capture prey. Owls can fly silently.

You can research birds and their habitats. You can write from the perspective of another person, a dog, a bird, the landscape, or any perspective that interests you.

Writing prompts

You can use these and other writing exercises to get you into a writer's flow. Sometimes watching a nature documentary like David Attenborough's The Life of Birds can spark your imagination. Or reading a book about birds, or watching them from your window or garden. Be playful and interesting with words, let them sound like the jungle or the forest or river, let them cry and arc and wheel.

Try these activities:

Senses - Walk through the bush or a garden, or look outside and feel the breeze on your skin. How would the breeze feel if you had feathers? If you were sleek and could ride the air currents? Or plunge in a deep dive into the sea to catch fish?
What sounds can you hear - can you map the sounds in your mind and connect them to what is going on between the animals and the landscape. How does it feel to call, warble and whistle? Is there a fight, a hunt, a party of birds nearby?
Why do animals camouflage? What are they hiding from? Can you notice the world in miniature - the mossy rocks, the tiny lichens, the ants battling, transporting food, building their tunnels, or being sentry? Where is the home of a tiny wren, why does it build its nest in the shrubs and spiky plants? Does your bird live in a burrow! How does a tawny frogmouth sit motionless for hours at a time?
Run with your arms wide - can you sense the world as if you were flying through the sky? What if you had to fly over the ocean for thousands of kilometres like an albatross or an arctic tern on its yearly migration? How do you rest? Are you exhausted when you arrive on the mudflats?
Scene - Imagine a forest where the trees are giants and their canopy seems to hold up the sky. The roots are like hills and there are tunnels underground. You look up and see an eagle flying through the canopy. What do you do? Where is your nest? Where is your hollow?
Close your eyes and see the waves of a foaming ocean pounding the base of a tall cliff. Seabirds roost in their thousands in tiny nooks in a cliff face. The parents take turns to find food for themselves and their young. There is urgency and they are constantly alert. They have a safe place from dogs and cats but they all screech when an eagle flies over. The first flight for a juvenile is to leap out over the high seas and take wing from this great height.

Illustrated books with birds

Here are some bird beautifully illustrated children's books, which can be appreciated for their drawing and story making. These books can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Unique Australian Bird Sounds, one of the wonderful books with wildlife recordings included, by Fred van Gessel . Published by New Holland Publishers.

Feathers are not just just for flying by Melissa Stewart and Illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen . Published by Charlesbridge, 2013.

How to Make a Bird, by Meg McKinlay and illustrated by Matt Ottley. Published by Walker Books Australia and New Zealand. Delve into the writing and illustration process with Meg and Matt.

Circle by Jeannie Baker.
Published by Walker Books Australia and New Zealand.

The Feather

Published by Little Hare,
an imprint of Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing

A Hollow is a home by Abbie Mitchell. Published by CSIRO Publishing.

Windcatcher. Migration of the Short-tailed Shearwater by Diane Jackson Hill and Craig Smith. Published by CSIRO Publishing.

Jemima Puddleduck by Beatrix Potter. Published by Project Gutenberg.

Inspired to know more about birds

Here are some bird books from people who have been observing and interacting with birds for many years.
You can also start your own nature journal to gather all your observations, drawings and collections about a bird together in one place.

Bird Minds by Gisela Kaplan about the intelligence and behaviour of Australian birds. Published by CSIRO Publishing.

Australian Magpie by Gisela Kaplan - The biology and behaviour of an unusual songbird. Published by CSIRO Publishing.

The Bird Way by Jennifer Ackerman Published by Scribe Melbourne.

Powerful owls are our largest owl species. They are vulnerable in NSW. They need large tree hollows to nest and raise their chicks.

Challenge 1 - Listening

Rainbow lorrikeets are highly social animals. This one is looking for nectar. They need tree hollows for homes.

Challenge 2 - Mimicry

Galahs beside their tree hollow.
Photo by Taronga Conservation Society

Challenge 3 - Writing

Greater egrets live in wetlands. They wade through shallow water and fish for small aquatic animals.

Challenge 4 - Artistry

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