The Birds Outside Your Door

Title: The Birds Outside Your Door
Description: Learn all about the birds in your backyard and discover how to distinguish them based on size, color and song.
Season: All year
Length of Activity: 1 hour
Age: Any age
Button: Start the Activity

The Birds Outside Your Door

Did you know there are close to 400 different kinds of birds living right outside your door?

Amazing isn’t it? The Pacific Northwest is so rich with bird families and varieties within each family that it often makes it difficult for novice bird-watchers to identify them.

So that’s what today’s activity is all about; learning how to distinguish the 10 most common backyard birds based on their size, shape, color, behavior and song.

But before we begin, let’s think about all the birds you’re already familiar with.

What color are they? Are they big, small, round, slim?

Supplies and Tools needed:
● Your eyes and ears
● A pencil
● A notebook

Getting started

Step 1: Make a list of all the birds you already know and recognize.

Step 2: Then take a look at and read through this beautifully compiled list of the most common backyard birds in Washington. Do you recognize any of them?

Step 3: Go outside! You can be in your backyard, in a park, or on a walk. Start by observing one or two birds and make notes about them in your notebook. What color are they? Are they big or small? Do you see them in a tree or on the ground? How are they behaving? Can you see the shape of their tails and beaks?

Step 4: See if you can find all 10 of the most common backyard birds in Washington:

1. American Robin
2. Song Sparrow
3. American Crow
4. Black-capped Chickadee
5. Dark-eyed Junco
6. European Starling
7. Northern Flicker
8. Spotted Towhee
9. House Finch
10. American Goldfinch

Step 5: Compare and contrast the birds. How are they similar? How are they different?

Taking it Deeper
1. Seattle, due to being much wetter than the rest of the state, tends to attract different birds. While bird-watching, did you come across birds that you weren’t able to identify?
2. Search the internet for images of these 5 commonly seen birds in Seattle: Anna’s Hummingbird, Bewick’s Wren, Steller’s Jay, Chestnut-backed Chickadee and the Bushtit.
3. Choose your favorite backyard bird. Then visit the ebird site. Type your bird species into the search bar to take your knowledge deeper.

Further Reading
Here is a list of 10 beautiful bird books to check out from your local public library or purchase from your local bookstore.

Further Watching
Do you want to learn more about birds in general? Here is a great learning video all about birds.