Learning about Birds Through Observation

We were heading out this morning and manged to find quite a lot of birds to observe.

While driving we saw a hawk fly over our car and land in a big tree near the edge of the road.  It was across the street from the parking lot so all the boys got to see it sitting up in the tree.  The light brown feathers really worked like camouflage for the bird and we were all a bit awed at the size.

The yard next door had many bright red cardinals and some big blue jays too.

We were having fun watching the birds then I spotted the bald eagle sitting in a tree along the water's edge!  We pulled into the driveway and were able to park the car so all the boys got to see the eagle sitting in the tree.

Seeing the bald eagle brought up the topic of predators and prey.  Alec was happy to teach us all everything he has learned about birds.

• The size of female and male birds of prey.  Ian assumed since this was the smaller of the two bald eagles spotted lately that it must be the female but Alec told him that the males are smaller in all birds of prey species.  
• We talked about why that would be when most other animals have larger males and smaller females.  
• We talked about the diet of the bald eagle, predators to the birds themselves, their eggs and their hatch-lings.  
• We talked about when the eggs are laid and when the babies hatch.  
• The boys even reminded us that Ben Franklin had not wanted the eagle as the nation's bird and why.  He had wanted the turkey to which my husband replied "It's a good thing they weren't our nation's bird; they're so tasty!"  

It was a great and spontaneous science lesson held right there in the car while driving.
   
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