Schoolyard Birds Resources

Resources and links for the Discover Schoolyard Birds curriculum.

Teaching slides for the whole Discover Schoolyard Birds curricula.

Tips for Taking Students Outside.

Lesson 1: What Makes a Bird a Bird?: Birds are a group of animals that have two wings, a beak, two legs, and lay hard-shelled eggs. Birds are the only living animal with feathers.

• Choose one or more of the following Introducing Birds videos to show your class.
  • Black birds and woodpeckers at the Cornell Feeder Cam.
  • Rock Pigeons flying through city.
  • A Cackling Goose swimming surrounded by Canada Geese.
  • Pair of Wood Thrush at a nest.
  • A female American Robin reinforces her nest with mud.
  • Turkey Vulture in flight.
• Open all of these All About Birds profiles to explore these videos, listen to sounds, and see more photos.
  • House Sparrow
  • American Robin
  • American Crow
  • Canada Goose
• You Can Be a Citizen Science video
• eBird live submission Map

Lesson 2: Size and Shape: There are many different kinds of birds. We can begin to identify them by comparing their size and shape.

Lesson 3: Color Pattern: A bird’s overall color pattern provides important clues for identification.

• The All About Birds website allows students to do research on their Focus Bird and become an expert on the species!
• Copies of the Bird Body Bingo pages – labeled and unlabeled

Lesson 4: Habitat and Behavior: Birds live in many different types of habitats and have developed adaptations over time to survive and reproduce in their habitat.

• Bird Behavior Case Study supplemental videos. These videos are used in Activity 2 and allow students to look more closely at bird behaviors.
  • Defending Territories
  • Courtship
  • Colonial Nesting
  • Foraging

Lesson 5: Bird Communication: Birds make a wide range of diverse sounds. You can use many of these sounds to identify birds.

Lesson 6: Introducing eBird: Students can submit any birds they see or hear to the eBird citizen-science project, contributing to the global study of bird population status and trends.

• You Can Be a Citizen Scientist video introduces students to the idea of citizen science and how they can participate in eBird!
• The eBird live submissions map is where you and your class can submit your findings to eBird!
• BirdSleuth Investigator is the Cornell Lab’s K-12 student magazine. You can download free copies or order print copies online.