Recognizing birds

FOREST/ANIMALS, GAME

Name of the exercise:         Recognizing of birds

Size of the group 2-6
Age of the members 7+
Equipment/working environment Pictures of a capercaillie, black grouse, mallard and hazel hen, paper, pens and task card, different indoors
Aims To learn to recognize birds and their sounds
Remarks You can use for example a tape recording for listening to bird songs, if it is not possible to go to the nature.

Description of the exercise:

The customers try to recognize birds (capercaillie, black grouse, mallard and hazel hen) from the pictures. Second task is to go out and try to recognize birds from songs without any clue.

Instructions for the advisor:

  1. Number the pictures
  2. Give customers the pictures with numbers.
  3. Give customers instructions, paper and pens for performing the task
  4. During the assessment of work results, the advisor can bring out for example following matters:
  • Male capercaillie has dark brown, black and grey colored feathers. It has a red spot above the eye and under the wings a white spot. The hen is smaller than the male. The hen is brown multicoloured and the chest is reddish.
  • The male black grouse is nearly black coloured, but it has a white wing stripes, lower wing and feathers under the tail. It has a red eye crests. The tail has lyre shape. The hen is gray brown and it has dark crosswise stripes in the throat and chest.
  • Mallard has a big head and beak and a short tail. It has a blue spot on the wings surrouded with white feathers. The male has a blue green head and a white stripe around the neck, a yellow beak. The female is brown multicoloured, but the crown and the stripes of eye corner are darker than the body
  • The hazel hen is gray multicoloured on the back side, brownish on the chest . The male has a black spot under the beak. On the crown it has a clearly visible crest.

Instructions for clients:

  1. Recognize the birds from the pictures and write the names in Finnish, in English and in German.
  2. Go to forest and try to recognize birds from songs. Write down the names of the birds you recognized
    Link to worksheet (including solutions)