Activities
Charting eggs ele
All about Birds ele/ms
Frayer Model Birds - doc. | pdf
Collecting data ele/ms
Nest Box Log ele/ms/hs
Life Cycles ele/ms
Mapping Birds ele/ms/hs
Variables ele/ms/hs
Feather Facts ms/hs
Scientific Thinking ele/ms/hs
Systems & Controls ms/hs
Science Journal Entry ms/hs
Make Puzzle ele/ms/hs
Ecology Vocabulary ms/hs
Classification ms/hs
Other Nestbox residents:
Bluebirds Project
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.
Can you see it in this close up?
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
How many young birds typically fledge?
BirdSleuth: Investigating Evidence - free materials from Cornell University
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2002 Cindy O'Hora, Updated 5/2008, Posted May 2002
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.