Fall and winter are a great time to watch birds in Arizona. As the heat breaks, winter visitors move into the desert. Sparrows and raptors settle into desert scrub and grasslands, and up to 15,000 sandhill cranes gather at Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area in southeastern Arizona between October and March (Copper Courier).
The timing works well for families who like citizen science. Project FeederWatch, the long-running bird count from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada, starts its new season on November 1 (FeederWatch). Participants count the birds that visit their yards, and their data helps scientists track bird populations.
That gives your homeschool about two weeks to set up a backyard bird lab, learn who's visiting, and run a real experiment: which food do your birds like best?
What your kids will learn
Grades K–5
- How to observe birds closely and describe how they look and act
- How to identify common backyard birds with a picture guide
- How to count visits with tally marks and turn them into a bar graph
- That different animals need and choose different foods
Grades 6–12
- Designing a fair test by controlling variables like dish, location and time of day
- Collecting data over repeated trials and graphing the results
- Connecting beak shape to diet: insect-eaters versus seed-eaters
- Drawing evidence-based conclusions and explaining sources of error
This week's activity: the backyard bird food test
You can start with what's already in your pantry. Use plain, unsalted foods only. Never use bread or salty snacks.
- Pick your spot. Choose a quiet place you can see from a window, like a patio wall, a porch rail or under a mesquite or palo verde. Keep it a few feet from windows and away from places where cats hide.
- Set out three identical dishes side by side, each with a different food, such as plain unsalted sunflower seeds, plain birdseed or millet, and a few chopped raisins. Using identical dishes is important, because then the only thing that changes is the food.
- Add water. A shallow dish of fresh water draws birds in the desert, even in winter. Change it every day.
- Watch at the same time each day. For 15 minutes each morning, kids tally every visit to each dish. Older students can also note the species and the time of each visit.
- Switch the dishes around every couple of days. If birds still pick the same food when it's in a new position, that's strong evidence. If they keep going to the same spot instead, location might matter more than food.
- Graph it. At the end of the week, turn the tallies into a bar graph and ask: Which food won? Did seed-eaters like house finches and white-crowned sparrows choose differently from other birds?
Wash the dishes every few days and wash hands after refilling them. Clean feeding spots help keep birds healthy.
To make the experiment more complete, try our Bird & Chicken Mealworm Observation Experiment Kit ($34.99). It comes with three classic bird foods, 8 oz each of dried mealworms, black-oil sunflower seeds and white millet, plus 3 identical clear feeding dishes. That gives you an insect food to compare against two seed foods, which is exactly what you need to test the beak-and-diet question. The printable curriculum includes a bird ID guide, observation logs, tally sheets and graphing pages for K–5 or 6–12. It works for backyard chickens, too. One tip: mealworms are a treat, not a complete diet, so offer a small handful at a time.
When November 1 arrives, your kids will already know their regular visitors, have a week of data, and have some practice with careful counting. That's a great head start if your family decides to join FeederWatch.
Join the growing community
Every kit comes with an invitation to Aardvark's Seed Planting For Little Hands, our private group for families who use our kits. Share your bar graphs, post a photo of your most surprising visitor, and see what young scientists in West Virginia and Arkansas are discovering in their own backyards. From Tucson to Flagstaff, we'd love to hear which food your birds chose.
Start your bird lab before November 1
Winter is one of the best times to watch birds in Arizona. Set out the dishes this week, start your tally sheets, and let your kids collect real data on the birds in your own yard.
- Bird & Chicken Mealworm Observation Experiment Kit – $34.99 (choose Grades K–5 or 6–12)
