Want to get outside this spring and look for birds with your kids? Naturalist Bridget Butler, aka the Bird Diva, has some suggestions for you.
Butler has been helping Vermonters explore and understand the outdoors for years, through work with organizations including the Green Mountain Audubon Society and ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain. She’s also been a correspondent on local media, including NBC5, WCAX-TV and Vermont Public.
While some birders turn their hobby into a competitive game by trying to find as many different species as possible, Butler is a fan of “slow birding,” a more holistic approach that focuses on developing a connection to the outdoors.
A mom of three, ages 10, 11 and 12, she offers online courses in slow birding at birddiva.com, including a $100 option that gives specific guidance on slow birding with kids. Here are a few of her tips for where and how to interest children in the feathered creatures all around us.
Where to go
- Specific: The Birds of Vermont Museum in Huntington has it all! Gaze at wood carvings of birds from the biggest vulture to the tiniest wren, linger at the bird-feeding window, hang out in the gazebo overlook or walk the trails. A gem of a spot to spend the day with bird friends.
- General: Any place there’s water! Spring birds are abundant by rivers, ponds, streams and lakes — from majestic herons to raucous red-winged blackbirds to serene waterfowl. Go with the flow and you can’t go wrong.
- Simple: Your neighborhood and yard! Get to know who’s who right near you. Pigeons, starlings and robins have endless behaviors to watch, all of which will pique your curiosity if you slow down and look.
How to talk with kids about birds
Use these prompts to frame what you’re seeing:
- I notice… (brings attention)
- I wonder… (brings curiosity)
- It reminds me of… (builds connection)
And get the free Merlin app from Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It will walk you through identifying birds by sight — and it can identify the birds as they sing around you!
This article was originally published in Seven Days’ monthly parenting magazine, Kids VT.
This article appears in Kids VT, Spring 2024.
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