A Visit from the RSPB

Yesterday we had a super visit from Lindsey from the RSPB. She spoke to use about the different types of birds and told us some interesting facts about birds we might see in our gardens. 

We learned about a group of birds called 'waders' and that have long beaks and legs because they like to look for food in wet areas. 

We also learned about 'birds of prey' and that they have long talons and a hooked beak so they can catch and eat the small animals that they catch. 

We found out that while starlings like to be in big groups, black birds much prefer to be on their own or with one other bird. We spoke about how we've seen starlings flying in really big groups and Lindsey told us this is called a 'murmuration' and they do this to confuse predators. We also learned that starlings can mimic other birds and even car horns or alarms. 

We then made bird food balls using fat, raisins, oats and seeds. The fat keeps the birds warm in the cold weather and the raisins, oats and seeds give them energy and plenty of vitamins. 

At the end we spoke about which foods are good to give to birds and which aren't. We learned that birds like oats but we can't give them cooked porridge as it can stick their beaks together. 

Thank you to Lindsey for coming in to visit us - we all really enjoyed it and learned lots!