Bird Watch

Background Information:

In general, each species of bird occurs only within certain types of habitat. And each plant community - whether abandoned field, mixed deciduous/coniferous forest, or wetland, for instance - contains its own predictable assortment of birds. Birds are found in the habitat in which can provide them with all of their basic needs to obtain food, water, shelter and to reproduce. Wetland habitat finds a wide assortment of birds from raptors like a Northern Harrier, herons like the Great Blue Heron and other shore birds like the Virginia Rail, Least Bittern and Common Snipe, many dabbler ducks like Mallards and Wood Ducks to songbirds like Marsh Wren and the Red Winged Blackbird which all depend on this habitat type for survival. Many require the dense vegetation to provide shelter and space for nesting and raising young and hiding from predators.

Birds have different adaptations that help them survive in their particular habitat type. Wetland birds such as raptors have adaptations like keen eye sight and sharp claws for capturing and eating their prey. Northern Harrier, Osprey and Bald Eagles frequent water areas in search of food. Songbirds such as a Common Yellowthroat, Red-Winged Blackbird and Marsh Wren have perching type feet that allow them to grab onto reed and perch looking out into the marsh. Shoreline birds like the Great Blue Heron, Common Snipe and Virginia Rail have long legs well suited to wade and maneuver along the shoreline edge and sharp beaks for spearing fish and amphibians.

There are many things we can look at to help us identify birds. We can look at their silhouette, colouring and markings, shape and size, how they fly and their behaviour are good clues in determining an individual bird species. For example, the behaviour of duck species is one way to tell apart diver ducks from dabbler ducks. Diving ducks all make a running take off. They head into the wind and patter over the surface, their big paddle-like feet giving extra forward momentum. Dabbler ducks, the type found in a wetland such as Herb Kebbel rise directly off the water. This behaviour is a good indication of what group of duck you are watching to give you a clue in their identification.

Follow-up Activity: Review local birds using a resource like this from Birds Canada. Get students to go on a yard walk then sit quietly in solo spots for awhile tallying birds the whole time. Review what types of birds did we see? Same as at the Marsh? Different? Why? What birds do we still need to figure out? How can we do it? Discuss the importance of making good observations and recording things like colour, pattern, song, size, how they fly, shape, feet, and beak when trying to identify a new bird species. Think about participating in a citizen science bird count later in the year. There is the Christmas Bird Count and the Great Backyard Bird Count in February. TVDSB led a count last Spring as well (find those resources here).