Bluebirds Project

blue feather Photos & Movie

blue feather Altricial or precocial

blue feather Feeding

blue feather Song

blue feather Camouflage

blue feather Winter

Activities

blue feather Charting eggs ele

blue feather All about Birds ele/ms

blue feather Frayer Model Birds - doc. | pdf

blue feather Collecting data ele/ms

blue feather Compare/Contrast

blue feather Food Web

blue feather Nest Box Log ele/ms/hs

blue feather Life Cycles ele/ms

blue feather Variables ele/ms/hs

blue feather Feather Facts ms/hs

blue feather Scientific Thinking ele/ms/hs

blue feather Systems & Controls ms/hs

blue feather Science Journal Entry ms/hs

blue feather Make Puzzle ele/ms/hs

blue feather Ecology Vocabulary ms/hs

blue feather Classification ms/hs

blue feather Resources

spaceBluebird video at NGS

spaceEggs Fact Hunt

spaceBirds Book online

spaceBirds Facts Activity

spaceLearn about Nests

spaceNestWatch

spaceCitizen Science Projects

spaceFields, Meadows EcoUnit

Other Nestbox residents:

spaceTree Swallows

spaceEnglish Sparrow

spaceWren

spaceWren Chicks

spaceNuthatch

spaceMice

spaceChickadee

Bluebirds Project

Bluebirds Project

blue feather Camouflage - hiding in plain sight

Examine this photo carefully.

There is a bluebird chick in it. The fledgling has just left the nest box. It found refuge in this ninebark bush. The chick has made a great choice because it is indeed hard to see. The patterns of coloring on the feathers, of this newly fledged chick, are a form of camouflage.

hidden bluebird chick

 

Can you see it in this close up?

hidden bird

1. If you were going to hide, what color(s) would you choose and why?

 

2. Give two examples of when people use camouflage.

 

Scientific thinking:

3. What environmental factors might contribute to an animal's camouflage efforts?

 

Mimicry is when an animal looks like something else. For example: The Viceroy Butterfly looks like the Monarch Butterfly. The Monarch Butterfly is poisonous. Predators avoid it. The Viceroy's similar appearance means many predators pass it by, too.

Assess - Do bluebirds benefit from mimicry?

 

Learn more..

You can't see me. - enaturalist

Blending in

How Animal Camouflage Works

How many young birds typically fledge?

BirdSleuth: Investigating Evidence - free materials from Cornell University

Nature / Internet Hunts / Pennsylvania Projects / Puzzles and Projects / Computers / Mrs. O's House / Site Map

2002 Cindy O'Hora, Updated 5/2008, Posted May 2002

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.