Basic Needs of Birds

Birds have four basic requirements:

1. Food (seed, berries, insects, fish, invertebrates, rodents, and fruit)
2. Cover or shelter (trees, grass, shrubs and snags)
3. Water (streams, lakes, mud flats, bird baths, and wetlands)
4. Space (larger for hawks and owls, smaller for sparrows and finches)

1. Record information on a chart after asking students what a bird needs to live or survive. List all answers.

2. Group items into categories, taking student suggestions for which items go together. Hopefully they will group things birds eat together and places where birds might find shelter or build a nest together, etc. Allow students to give reasons why they feel things need to be in a certain grouping and permit them to vote if there is an item that they think needs to be moved or removed from the list after discussion.

3. Solicit terms to cover each of the final groupings or categories so it has a name. See if there are groupings that could fit together. Try to guide the discussion so that the final grouping ends up showing the 4 basic requirements.

4. Now look at the Florida scrub jay and see what it specifically needs in the way of each of these 4 requirements. Use online resources from the scrub menu page to gather information.