Birdwatching with young children

Daylight savings started today. Spring is here, downunder. This is the time of the year I wake up at around 5.30am to a chorus of birds, singing in our otherwise quiet suburb, only to be all silent again at around 6 am. Sometimes I get up and have a dip in our spa pool, watching with anticipation the sky above to see if is going to be a blue and sunny day or not, at the same time enjoying the crispy air and listening to the tui in the neighbour’s tree. Sometimes my six year old daughter joins me, and it is a time we thoroughly enjoy together. This brings me to birdwatching with children.

Today’s life is hectic for our children with school work, afterschool activities and peer pressure. At our preschool, we show the children how to take a deep breath, slow down, and wonder at the beauty of nature. One of the activities we use is introducing them to birdwatching. We have a small park next to our preschool with some bushes bordering to our garden. The birds like this little green dot in our suburb and we regularly have little wax-eyes , yellowhammers and tui visiting the trees. This often happens during our lunchtime, when we are having our lunch with the children up on our deck. The garden will be quiet which makes it a good time for the birds to visit and take advantage of the spilled bird seeds or chicken pellets our pets have left behind.

The blackbirds especially love to have a little splash in our little pond, which we created out of a children’s play water trough.The children and I will try to quietly move a bit closer and watch the birds as they enjoy their splash, their feed or their bath in the sand and dust.

The driftwood logs in our garden provide a great spot for the children to quietly sit and watch.

Birdwatching is a great nature activity to do with young children. You can hang a bird feeder just outside the window and show the child how to sit quietly so that the birds won’t be afraid or you can take them outside into your backyard, your local park or to the forest. Young children are very capable of sitting quietly and watching. You don’t need much, except for a birdguide and a pair of binoculars. We use Andrew Crowe’s: A Mini Guide to the Identification of New Zealand's Land Birds, which is excellent for the younger ones as it small with not to many pages and basic with clear pictures. The birdwatching.com website has a good introduction to birdwatching with children. I also came across this article Birdwatching helps children become nature-wise by Karen Stephens.

There is something magic about watching a bird in its natural environment, going about its business. What is magic too, is watching your child making that connection with nature when they sit quietly, and are mesmerized by the awe and wonder that has been awakened.

Watch birds with your children. You'll be giving them a lifetime ticket to the theater of nature. - birdwatching.com