Kentucky Ornithological Society's
Kid's Page

Birdwatching information | Fun Links for Kids | KOS Kid's Bird Quiz | KOS Kid's Bird Reports

Bird watching is fun!! Finding and identifying different birds can be easy (almost everyone knows birds like Blue Jays, Robins, and Hummingbirds) or not so easy. You can learn to identify birds by carefully observing a bird's habitat (such as lake or pond, forest, or field), field marks (like color or colors), size and shape, & behavior (such as feeding on the ground or climbing up or down the trunk of a tree).

You can attract and watch birds in your yard by providing appropriate food, water, and habitats. Bushes and dense hedges protect birds from predators, provide perches, and are home to insects, which are great bird food. Colorful flowers also attract hummingbirds. Bird houses are fun to make and attract many nesting birds.

Seeds (especially sunflower and millet) and suet are high-energy bird foods. Kids can make a simple bird feeder by attaching a short length of string to a pine cone, covering the pine cone with a peanut butter mixture (1/2 cup peanut butter mixed with 2 1/2 cups cornmeal or uncooked oats), rolling it in seeds, then hanging it from a tree branch. 

If you attract birds to your yard or see some neat birds somewhere else, let us know (send e-mail to gary.ritchison@eku.edu)!!

And, when you're not watching birds, check out these great web sites:

If you've found some neat sites that you think other kids would enjoy, let us know (e-mail gary.ritchison@eku.edu) & we'll add them to this list!!!

Be the first to correctly identify this bird & win a bluebird box for your backyard! E-mail your guess to gary.ritchison@eku.edu (& please provide your name, age, & mailing address):

Congratulations to Daniel Stuber (Berea, KY), Whitney Frost (Columbia, KY), Henry Webb (Harrodsburg, KY) and Ashley Carr (South Shore, KY)!! Each has correctly identified our KOS Kids 'Mystery Bird' and each has won a bluebird box courtesy of the Kentucky Ornithological Society.

Good job, Daniel, Whitney, Henry and Ashley!!!!

we vacationed in myrtle beach, sc in july.  me and mom went birdwatching at huntington beach state park.  we saw black-necked stilts, tricolor herons, virginia rail, woodstork, and ibis!  we were thrilled to say the least!

matthew toon
8 August 2004
 

it was cool to see 95 birds on my 3-day weekend!  first, on friday, we drove over (me & mom) to ky lake drive after the storms and saw baltimore oriole, mallards, coots, yellow-throated warbler, titmouse, my first palm warbler, and willets at the beach after miss hap told us about them.  they had 2 hooded mergansers for company! sat morning started off cool with a gray catbird trying to get a moth off the front ledge of the lodge.  we met bill liskowsky at lbl for our field trip.  our first bird was yellow-throated vireo, my first!  with our group we saw lesser scaup, common loon, osprey, and prothonotary warbler across from one of the islands.  a rough-wing swallow tried to get in our van and the muffler of a car!  we saw many species on sat.
sunday morning, at home in carlisle county, we saw yellow warbler, barred owl, and a loggerhead shrike.  i can't name all 95 species but it was definitely a big weekend for me!

Matthew Toon
April 23, 24, 25, 2004
 

Observed any cool birds lately? Send us a report for posting here!