Challenge: For the Birds

This is a challenge for anyone interested in reading, watching, and learning more about birds. Observe birds in your own back yard, neighborhood, or anywhere you can find them.

When you complete 1 task, you will earn 10 points and a badge.

Hawk flying in sky, two red finches in a flowering bush, a Gackle in front of the bush, a family of five quail in the grass, one roadrunner on the grass in front of a cactus and a cactus wren on a cactus.
Hawk flying in sky, two red finches in a flowering bush, a Gackle in front of the bush, a family of five quail in the grass, one roadrunner on the grass in front of a cactus and a cactus wren on a cactus.
Task

Read or use a book about birds or birdwatching. Here are some examples:

  • Birding Arizona: what to know where to go, by Charles Babbitt
  • Birding Basics: tips, tools & techniques for great bird-watching by Noah K. Strycker
  • All About Birds Southwest from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology
  • Gardening for the Birds: how to create a bird-friendly backyard by George Martin Adams

Kid Friendly:

  • The Junior Birder’s Handbook: a kids guide to birdwatching by Danielle Belleny
  • What’s Inside a Bird’s Nest and other Questions about Nature & Life cycles by Rachel Ignotofsky
  • Birds by Moira Rose (National Geographic Little Kids First Nature Guide)

Read a picture book with a birding theme. Here are some examples.

  • Nesting by Henry Cole
  • Unflappable by Matthew Ward
  • Tiny Bird: a Hummingbird’s amazing Journey by Robert Burleigh
  • A Garden to Save the Birds by Wendy McClure
  • Birds on Wishbone Street by Suzanne Del Rizzo
  • A Round of Robins by Katie Hesterman
  • The Blue Songbird by Vern Kousky
  • Home is where the birds Sing by Cynthia Rylant

Read a fiction or non-fiction chapter book. Here are some examples.

School Age:

  • Bird Nerd by Jennifer Ann Richter

Adult Memoirs:

  • Birding to Change the World by Trish O’Kane
  • The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
  • Better Living Through Birding by Christian Cooper
  • Birdgirl : Looking to the Skies in Search of a Better Future by Mya-Rose Craig
  • Birding to Change the World by Trish O’Kane

Adult Fiction

  • Amish greenhouse mystery. 02 : The mockingbird’s song by Wande E. Brunstetter
  • The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton

Go for a birdwatching walk in your neighborhood.

Identify at least one bird in your backyard.

Birdwatch at a local park or nature preserve.
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