There have been accesses to
this page since February 1999
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Picture indexEmily Quinton with parrots pictures |
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This Australian Birding site is owned by: Victoria Quinton. Previous 5 Sites Skip Previous PreviousNextSkip Next Next 5 Sites Random Site List Sites ] |
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"Here's the photo of the Satin Bowerbird's bower which is near my house at Katoomba, NSW. As you can see, there are several rings from plastic milk bottles amongst the many other blue decorations. These rings, if unbroken, are a major hazard as they sometimes get caught around the bird’s neck and between its bill, preventing it from eating or drinking. Note also the cicada skins and a single yellow feather (hard to see). The bowerbirds are resident in the bush around here all year."
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These photos courtesy of: Dr Ian Montgomery, monty@bio.usyd.edu.au Institute of Marine Ecology, A11, University of Sydney, NSW 2006.. |
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Not just a pigeon - it's a
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Osprey
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The Gould League has some small books for garden birds, woodland birds and others.
"As a teacher and also a birder who has introduced birding to children, I believe a book like Slater's is not interesting enough to maintain children's attention, much less young children at the age of your daughter. The print and the pictures are far too small. However, there are some excellent materials put out by the Gould League in Victoria, many of which are available through BOCA as well. Also Steve Parish, the photographer put out some good materials last year that are available from book stores and newsagents at very reasonable prices. Your daughter would probably remember the birds better if seen in 'look alike" actual habitats and in enlarged pictures as seen in these books. There is also an activity book with colouring in, etc. in this series which helps us remember the correct colours and markings on the birds. You yourself would also enjoy one of these books called Amazing Facts about Birds. It is packed full of information not generally found in Field Guides. I hope you don't mind me being honest in my opinion, But I know how easy it is for children to be put off by print and work that is too difficult."
" Re young children and birding- Speaking as a grandmother, I wouldn't get a big 'birds of australia' book for someone who's not reading yet. Better to get something with clear pictures and fairly simple text of *local* birds. The Gould League is where I'd start looking (office and shop in Moorabbin somewhere). What we have always found very useful indeed is a poster - Garden Birds or Bush Birds - to put on the wall and use it to 'reinforce' any ordinary or interesting birds you see day by day - without overdoing it. The Gould League stickers and sticker books are very good too. But try not to overdo it. I know a few offspring of serious birders who were put off by over-exposure when too young to appreciate such things." ANTHEA FLEMING
Hi Victoria, My son is at about the same stage as your daughter. We haven't bothered much with field guides, yet. Rather we have tried to show him birds where it is easy to see them - a bird bath in the back yard has been useful, but the other thing we realised was that picnic grounds and camping grounds, especially in national parks or state forest, a re really good (at quiet times) because the birds are used to people, so little kids have a chance to get a look at them before they fly away. The reason this became important was that our son (Michael) saw us using binoculars quite a lot and obviously he wanted to do the same. Most birds don't co-operate! Hence the picnic grounds, etc. However, he still had trouble seeing through binoculars because it is difficult for a 3 year old to get the eyepieces the right distance apart. Fortunately, we have a small pair of pocket-sized binoculars that he can hold easily. I worked out the distance that the eyepices should be set apart for him (by holding up to his eyes). Using a pocket-knife I then roughly carved a piece of wood (actually a bit of a stick at the cam pground!) to be about the right length to fit between the two barrels of the binoculars. Each end of the stick was carved in a concave shape so that it would hold without slipping out. I then put a rubber band around the two barrels to hold tension on the s tick. After a bit of adjustment, this successfully held the binoculars at the correct spacing for his eyes
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Before this, it was very awkward for him,
but he has now been using them successfully for some time.We haven't
tried the Gould League books, but ju s t recently started using a
series available in Western Australia, called 'Bush Books' and
published by the Dept of Conservation and Land Management. There are
2 or 3 on birds, and various others on mammals, insects, plants, etc.
They weren't specifically d esigned for children, but we have found
them quite good because, for example, the one on 'Birds in the
Backyard' includes just the common ones you are likely to see in
Perth, without too many to cause confusion. And the pictures are a
good size. There is one bird to a double page, so that makes it a bit
easier for someone just learning to read. We have looked at Slater
with Michael (because he sees us using it and wants to see , too, but
I think the simpler books are more suitable. I hope this is of some
interest - I would be interested to hear if you get any useful hints
from other people
Allan Burbidge http://cygnus.uwa.edu.au/~austecol/birds.html
E-mail austecol@cygnus.uwa.edu.au
My daughter is four. Any field guide interests her and she loves the Readers Digest Complete Book of Aust. birds. She, however, always asks first if she can have a "read". She goes through page by page taking great pleasure in seeing birds that we have encountered together (and always seems to remember the finest details of the occasion - where, who else was there, other things seen). She remembers the names of many and those she can't will often if given the first sound of the name. At this age, the actual book isn't important, it's the pleasure they get out of it. The rest, if they are inclined, will come later."
"The most important thing to get children (and adults) aware of and interested in our natural environment and how we interact with it - then moving through to how and why to study and protect it. Getting interested in birds is a good way of doing this. It does not have be birds - people can get there through other perceptual doorways - maybe through frogs, butterflies, plants and gardening, fish and fishing, even hunting. But birds are good starters to get children (or hitherto unaware adults) interested because: Birds are very visible - in the daytime, in our parks and gardens, in the city streets, in farmland and just about all natural habitats (except deep below ocean surfaces and deep in subterranean systems). Birds are dynamic - they move about and do things in public that we can relate to - feeding, fighting, courting, mating, building nests, raising chicks, getting killed and eaten by other birds, and often making a lot of noise while doing so. Birds are variable - with lots of different kinds around, we can compare them with one another and start asking questions such as
"Why do we get some kinds of birds in this place and different ones in another?"
Birds are relatively easy to identify and to monitor - thereby being good indicators of what is happening with our environment and enabling us to ask more questions -
"Why are there more lorikeets in city parks these days compared with 20 years ago?"
"Why don' t I see Grey-crowned Babblers on my farm as I used to?"
"Why am I seeing more dead penguins washed up on the beach?"
Bird watching and bird study are activities that are open ended - there will always be things we do not know or understand about birds, always opportunities for more discoveries and revelations, to explore esoteric quests to your heart's content, forming a lifetime interest that will become more richly rewarding the more we put into it.
Birds are inspirational - because they fly, they are constantly used as symbols of freedom. Birds are beautiful and fascinating - they draw us to treasure their presence and to care what happens to them, and thus to care for our environment. As to the details of HOW to get children interested in the first place - I suggest doing it gently and allowing children to develop an interest at their own pace with some strategic and tactical guidance from time to time. The worst thing, I believe, is to push them to the point where it all becomes too intense and is no fun any more. Cheers, Hugo.
With thanks to members of the Birding-Aus mailing list
King
Parrot
