Another Bird Species Account by 3rd Grader

Michael Castellana was so inspired to be an ornithologist he's done more research on another bird. Here is his second species account, this one on the Indigo Bunting. Again, my appologies in not being able to download the pictures that he included in his write-up.


Indigo Bunting
Size: 51/2” (14 cm)
Male: Vibrant blue finch-like bird. Scattered dark markings on wings and tail.
Female: Light brown bird with faint markings.
Juvenile: Similar to female.
Nest: Cup; female builds; 2 broods per year.
Eggs: 3-4; pale blue without markings.
Incubation: 12-13 days; females incubates.
Fledging: 10-11 days; female feeds young.
Migration: Complete, to southern Florida, Mexico and Central and South America.
Food: Insects, seeds, fruit; will visit seed feeders.
Compare: Male Eastern Bluebird is larger and has a rusty red breast.

Bird Taxonomy and Bird Lists

As part of my ecologist visit at Ostrander Elementary we did a bird survey. I explained to the students how ornithologist might take field notes. I learned long time ago of a four letter coding system for the common names of birds listed in the American Ornithological Union (AOU). In researching the use of field notes for ornithologist I've found that several scientists have proposed a six letter coding system (go to http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bbowman/birds/sixlettercode.html). Both systems use the first letters of the common names of birds. In the four letter system that I am familiar with, birds that have a single word name the abreviation for that bird would be the first four letters of its name. For birds with two names, the first two letter of the first name are combined with the first two letters of the last name to come up with the four letter abreviation. In the case of birds with three names, which includes hyphenated names, the first letter of each of the first two names are used with the first two letters of the last name. For birds with four names, the first letter of each name is used for the abreviated name. There are some cases with the four letter system where there are two birds with the same abreviation (i.e. Barn Owl and Barred Owl). This is where the six letter system would work better.

Here are the abreviations for the birds that we identified on our bird walks at Ostrander.

Red-tailed Hawk - RTHA
Ring-Billed Gull - RBGU
Rock Pigeon - ROPI
Mourning Dove - MODO
Northern Flicker - NOFL
Red-bellied Woodpecker - RBWO
Downy Woodpecker - DOWO
Blue Jay - BLJA
American Crow - AMCR
Fish Crow - FICR
Black-capped Chickadee - BCCH
Tufted Titmouse - TUTI
White-breasted Nuthatch - WBNU
Brown Creeper - BRCR
Northern Mockingbird - NOMO
American Robin - AMRO
European Starling - EUST
House Sparrow - HOSP
Red-winged Blackbird - RWBL
Common Grackle - COGR
Northern Cardinal - NOCA
Song Sparrow -SOSP


I have arranged the list above in what scientist call taxonomic order. This is the order in which birds are classified to show the close relationships between them. For example ducks and geese are very similar types of birds and are classified as Anseriformes. Gulls, although they are found near water and even swim on the surface like ducks are more like shorebirds, so they are classified as Charadriiformes. Most of the birds we observed around the school are called perching birds, which scientist would call Passeriformes. Although the red-tailed hawk perches in tree branches its body, wings and beak shape and its behaviors are not like that of the Passeriforms. These characteristics of the red-tailed hawk are shared by all hawks, falcons and eagles. These birds are called Falconiformes. Just to confuse you, owls, although they might look and act a lot like hawks are not included with the Falconiforms. Can you think why? The owls belong in the group Strigiformes.

There were 22 species of birds observed on my bird walks with 3rd graders over the three week period of my ecology visit. As spring time progresses and the migrant birds return there might be more than twice an many species that would be found around Ostrander Elementary. These might include: Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Bald Eagle, American Kestrel, Wild Turkey, Killdeer, Eastern Screech-owl, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Hairy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Phoebe, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Barn Swallow, House Wren, Carolina Wren, Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Bluebird, Cedar Waxwing, Red-eyed Vireo, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Baltimore Oriole, Brown-headed Cowbird, Rose-breasted Grossbeak, Purple Finch, House Finch, American Goldfinch, and Chipping Sparrow. Some ornithologists keep a list of the birds that they see in a particular area. You could use this list to create a checklist and record the bird species observed over the course of the school year.

3rd Grade Ornithologists Report

Michael Castellana, in Mrs. McQuiston's third grade class did some research on the Scarlet Tanager after our bird walk on Friday. He sent his report to me and kindly gave me permission to post it on my blog. He included photographs of the male and female Tanager, but I have had difficulty posting those. I will work on that and hopefully will be able to include the two photographs in the post in the future.

Here is the report Michael sent:

Scarlet Tanager
Size: 7” (18 cm)
Male: Bright scarlet red bird with jet pack wings and tail. Ivory bill and dark eyes.
Female: Drap greenish yellow bird with olive wings and tail, whitish wing linings, dark eyes.
Juvenile: Same as female.
Nest: Platform; female builds; 1 brood per year.
Eggs: 4-5; blue green with brown markings.
Incubation: 13-14 days; female incubates.
Fledging: 9-11 days; female and male feed young.
Migration: Complete, to Central and South America.
Food: Insects, fruit.
Compare: Male Northern Cardinal has a black mask and red bill and lacks the black wings of male Scarlet Tanager.

Bird Walk Make-up

On Friday, March 26, we were able to do the continuation, actually a second attempt at the bird survey walk with Mrs. McQuiston’s third grade class that we had started on Monday. The weather was much better than on Monday. It was mostly cloudy when we started at 1:10, but then cleared to just a few cirrus clouds. There was a brisk breeze from the northeast. It was seasonally cool. We took the same route clockwise around the school that I had done with the other 3rd grade classes.

We were able to observe and count the following birds:

American Robin – 9
American Crow – 5
House Sparrow – 8
Tufted Titmouse – 2
Red-winged Blackbird – 30
European Starling – 3
Red-tailed Hawk – 1
Black-capped Chickadee – 1
White-breasted Nuthatch – 2
Mourning Dove – 1
Song Sparrow – 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 1
Downy Woodpecker – 1

We saw an American Crows carrying nest material, small sticks, flying in the same direction that had been observed by another class.

Spring Bird Survey at Ostrander - Third Class

On Monday, March 22, we had a bird survey walk with Mrs. McQuiston’s third grade class. The weather was iffy – completely cloudy, light drizzle and a light breeze with a mild temperature. We weren’t sure if we would be able to do the walk because of the weather, but decided to give it a try. After about half an hour the rain became more steady and decided to head back inside and do another walk later in the week.

We were able to observe and count the following birds around the school building:

American Robin – 4
American Crow – 2
House Sparrow – 3
Tufted Titmouse – 2
Blue Jay – 5
Northern Mockingbird – 1
Northern Cardinal – 3
Common Grackle – 4
Red-winged Blackbird – 10
Fish Crow – 1
European Starling – 12

We saw two American Crows carrying nest material, small sticks, flying toward the tree line behind the school. We plan to look for the nest. The Fish Crow was identified by its distinctive call. The Cardinals were very active doing there mating/territory calls all around the school.

We hope that Friday, our alternate day, will have better weather.

Lynnwood Elementary Ornithologists Study Owls

Today Lynnwood 4th grade ornithologist studied owl with me. Four classes dissected owl pellets and found the following.

Mrs. Janssen’s class dissected 11 pellets and found 31 mice, 1 shrew, 0 moles, 0 birds
Mrs. Lodge’s class dissected 9 pellets and found 21 mice, 2 shrew, 0 moles, 0 birds
Mrs. Shields’ class dissected 11 pellets and found 30 mice, 1 shrew, 1 moles, 0 birds
Mr. Freeman’s class dissected 10 pellets and found 29 mice, 1 shrew, 0 moles, 0 birds

All four fourth grades combined dissected 41 pellets and found 111 mice, 5 shrew, 1 mole and 0 birds. Do these numbers support the hypothesis that was discussed in class?

During one class our discussion touched on how many animals does an owl eat for a meal. For this we need to look at our data and calculate an average. Now for most 4th graders this will be a new mathematical computation. To get an average, of course, we need to total the number of animals found in the pellets, 117, and divide it by the number of pellets dissected, 41. The average for our data therefore is 2.9, almost 3 animals per meal. Compare this average to the averages for owl pellet dissections done by other classes (see - Ostrander Elementary on March 8, 9 and 10; Jefferson Elementary on February 3; Nazareth Intermediate School on January 25, 26 and 28; and Circleville Elementary on November 4, 2009 - there are other investigation recorded on dates previous to these that you can search for in the blog). You will find that this is a little higher. Why might this be? Remember, ever scientist starts their science work with a question.

There might be a couple of reasons why. One might be a result of the start of the spring season. The owl pellets that were dissected were collected soon after they were produced by wild owls. That means these pellets show what the owls are eating now, in the early spring. The mice in northern California, Oregon and Washington, where these pellets come from have already started there reproductive cycles. Owls would hear the sounds and activity of a mouse nest, land on the nest and eat up the mouse family all at once. Indeed, there were several pellets dissected that had 5 or 6 mice in them, with all of the skulls being quite small. This would support this hypothesis, since the small skulls would be from young mice.

Another possibility is that the pellets dissected were not an average sample of owl pellets. Since I order many pellets from Pellets Inc. and I had to pay extra for a rush order to get these in time for our study, the sales representative told me he would make sure we had large pellets. Large pellets usually might occur when an owl eats a larger than usual meal. If he was carefully picking large pellets for our order that might result in a larger average of animals per pellet change our findings.

Ostrander Elementary Bird Walk

I just finished a bird walk with Ms. Missale’s and Mrs. Wager’s 3rd grade classes at Ostrander Elementary School in Wallkill. We did a survey of the birds at the school. Here is our data.

Our walk started at about 2:00 PM. The weather was good with no clouds and a slight breeze from the East. We were able to identify the following birds as we walked around the school.

American Robin – 3
Rock Pigeon – 2
American Crow – 15
House Sparrow – 6
Ring-billed Gull – 4
Mourning Dove – 3
Tufted Titmouse – 1
Blue Jay – 1
Brown Creeper – 2
Downy Woodpecker – 1
White-breasted Nuthatch – 1
Red-tailed Hawk – 3

We also observed four gulls that may have been Ring-billed Gulls but they were too far away to be sure.

We can compare our findings with the bird survey that was done with Mrs. Stokes class on Tuesday, March 9th. What do we find? Why might there be these similarities or differences? Unfortunately we didn’t record the weather conditions that day. That may have affected what birds we observed and how many there were. Of course our observations today are a week later. As spring approaches there will be more birds arriving from their winter habitats, but the birds observed today and last week are all birds that have been here all winter.

We will be doing one last bird survey with Mrs. McQuiston’s class on Monday, March 22. What might those finding be? How might they compare with the previous two bird surveys.

Another Ostrander Owl Ecology Class

I finished my last owl ecology session at Ostrander Elementary School with Mrs. Busse’s 2nd grade class. We dissected 14 pellets and found 30 mice, 7 shrews, 2 moles and no birds. Check out other owl dissection data from presentations I have done previously, including the results from the two other second grade Ostrander classes in earlier blog entries.

Ornithology at Ostrander Elementary School

I am continuing my Ecologist-In-Residence program at Ostrander Elementary School in Wallkill. Today we were ornithologists with Mrs. Stokes 3rd grade class doing a spring bird inventory of the school yard. Our walk was at 1:45 in the afternoon. We counted the following birds:

Common Grackle – 6
Ring-billed Gull – 4
American Crow – 38
House Sparrow – 4
Mourning Dove – 3
European Starling – 3
Red-winged Blackbird – 11
Blue Jay – 1

I had been doing General Ecology walks with 1st grade classes earlier in the day and there was much more bird activity. During those walks we saw over 1000 Canada Geese. We also observed a Red-tailed Hawk, several more Blue Jays and many more American Crows.

The habitat for birds at Ostrander is very good. As the spring season moves forward more birds will return from their winter homes and many more species could be counted at the school. I have two more third grade ornithology session scheduled next week. It will be interesting to see what the bird species counts will be for those classes. I will post those findings here after I have done those walks.

Owl Pellet Study at Ostrander Elementary School

I visited the Ostrander Elementary School in Wallkill, NY today. I had two 2nd grade classes where we studied the common owls of the area and dissected owl pellets. Here is the data that was collected.

Mrs. Dutka’s class dissected 12 pellets and found 23 mice, 0 shrew, 0 moles and 1 bird
Mrs. Lazinski’s class dissected 10 pellets and found 19 mice, 2 shrew, 1 mole and 1 bird

A total of 22 pellets were dissected in which we found 42 mice, 2 shrews, 1 mole and 2 birds. What does this tell us about the favorite food of owls?

We will be taking apart owl pellets in other 2nd grade classes. We can add those findings to these to get a better idea of owl food preference. In addition we can look at the findings of other schools here on my blog. Check out my blog for February 3 at Jefferson Elementary, late January at Bushkill Elementary and November 4 at Circleville Elementary, among the recent school visits where I studied owls with elementary ornithologists.