Birds from Birchbark House

We're reading The Birchbark House which is about a Native American family who lived at the same time as Laura Ingalls Wilder who wasn't that nice to people without white skin. We liked the Little House books, but we learned about how they used to treat Native Americans. We did NOT like that part.

Anyway, in The Birchbark House there are birds, and we thought we'd blog about them, so that's how it all came out. And what we're blogging about first is Golden Breasted Woodpecker. They live in Minnesota! That's where one of my moms used to live.

When we looked up the Golden Breasted Woodpecker, we couldn't find any information at first. Usually when we type in a bird name, we get a lot of information. We learned that the Golden Breasted Woodpecker is sometimes considered to be a Green-Barred Woodpecker. So, we're going to blog about that.

There are a lot of Green-Barred woodpecker calls on this page, and here's a link to it.

This bird is found in east and central South America. We had a hard time finding other information. We learned that sometimes research is easy and sometimes, it is hard! We'll try another bird in a few days!

Birds are Living Dinosaurs

My friend Gracen asked us to research if birds are actually living dinosaurs. We googled it, and the Museum of Natural History said that many paleontologists (which are dinosaur scientists) think that birds are living dinosaurs. They think that because they have nesting, brooding, skeleton features, and maybe even feathers in common. Ornithologists which are bird scientists don't agree all the time with that.

This theory started because once, the archaeopteryx fossil was found. They thought it was a dinosaur until they saw the feather imprints. The archaeopteryx ha

s jaws and teeth like dinosaurs. Its skin was scaly like the dinosaurs. It had tiny limbs with three claws. It also had a long tail. All like dinosaurs. The only thing about the tail that was like a bird was that it was covered in feathers. The wings, the back of the neck and the top of the head were covered with feathers. Here is a picture of a fossil of an archaeopteryx. We think it should be called an Ardenopteryx. And, here is a link to archaeopteryx images. OK, Gracen, we did the research, you should come to our house now!

Winter Birds in Michigan

Sorry we haven't blogged in a while. I have school now, and we don't see as many birds because it's winter, and there aren't as many birds in the winter. We did put birdseed in a flat tin in the front yard for birds, and squirrels came!

Our friend Al got us a bird feeder for Christmas that we have to wait until the ground isn't frozen to put out.

We do see some birds like black capped chickadees, crows and northern cardinals. Here are some other birds that come to bird feeders in Michigan in the winter:

blue jays

American Crows

Black Capped Chickadees

Northern Cardinals

Downy Woodpeckers

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Tufted Titmice

White Breasted Nuthatch

European Starling

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow

Morning Dove

Since we've never written about European Starlings, we're gonna look it up.

The European Starling likes to sit on buildings, telephone wires, and parking lots. They probe the ground looking for food. They travel in flocks often with grackles, crows, and blackbirds. It is a medium sized bird with a pointed tail and short wings.

You can hear the call here.

Do you want us to learn about anything for you? If you do, leave a comment!