Easy Bird-related games to play with kids

By Amy Simso Dean

Below is a list of games for kids with a brief decription

Bingo

You can use online bingo card makers to create the cards (laminate or use new ones each time). Then I create a PowerPoint or use pieces of paper or pictures to birds. The kids ID the bird as a group. Have prizes for everyone (lollipops are a good one).

Field Guide Race

Get pictures of birds (from magazines, calendars, old field guides, flickr. Please follow copyright laws—ask permission or use) and set them around the room.

Kids get a piece of paper, pen/pencil and a field guide.

They can work through trying to ID all the birds. They work alone or in teams.

Gather and at the end and ID all the birds together.

Spot the Difference

Get pictures of birds that are similar but not the same and have the kids take turns spotting differences.

Jeop-birdy

Create a game board with $ amounts and questions. Kids work as teams to pick a category and amount then answer together. If they get it right, they get that money. If they get it wrong the next team(s) in line has a chance to answer. Most money wins and can pick their prizes first.

Design a dinosaur

Find cheap plastic dinosaurs, buy a bunch of feathers from a craft store. Set up hot glue guns and let the kids design their own feathered dinos. I put together a quick PowerPoint talking about the dino-bird link and with some really cool artist renderings.

Build a bird

Put out a bunch of different craft items and let kids create and name their own bird. Plastic Easter eggs, pine cone and foam balls make good bases.

Cowbirds & Yellow Warblers

Get a bunch of ping pong or similar balls, egg carton bases cut in half, and something to act as food (I’ve used perler beads)

Put a C or some kind of marking on some of the balls. The others go into the egg carton nests.

Most kids are yellow warblers with nests, and a few are cowbirds. The yellow warblers must leave the room to get food. Meanwhile the cowbirds can substitute their eggs for the warblers’. When the warblers return, they can check their eggs and try to replace the cowbird eggs but remember to keep making them leave the room to eat, “Time to Eat!" It’s fun chaos.

Give all kids a chance to be cowbirds.

ID by Sketch

Give kids paper and pencil. Show them a bird for a minute while they draw and/or take notes. Hide the bird and see if they can ID it using field guides based on what they noticed.

Feed the young

Super messy!

Get a bunch of bird seed or rice and put it in a bin or two. Give kids (work alone or in teams) a cup and a spoon. The cups are their nests so set them the same distance away from the food. Say go and watch them race to fill their nests with food. First team to do it wins.

Amy Simso Dean, birder for over 25 years, runs MYBirdClub, an after school birdwatching club for kids in south MInneapolis. She has been involved with The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota for almost 10 years. Her goals is to get kids out into nature by using birds as a lends to explore the environment and conservation.