Pair these sweet picture books about birds with a painted birdhouse craft to help young kids explore their backyard.
In our family, we're a little obsessed with backyard birds. My husband has a big feeder he keeps just off our patio where we can watch feathered friends from our kitchen window.
I decided to have a little extra fun with our girls doing a backyard nature study and we paired a simple painted bird house craft along with some fun reading from the library.
Paint Wooden Birdhouses
Most kids I know LOVE to do paint-your-own crafts.
To help my kids decorate a place for the birds to nest, I picked up:
- Plain wooden birdhouses
- A few acrylic paints
- Paintbrushes
I set up craft paper to protect our table and set them free to paint their birdhouses however they wished.
While the girls painted the houses, they kept talking about the future inhabitants of their creations.
We had long chats about eggs and baby birds, and nest building.
Picture Books About Birds
I collected these books from the library for a fun reading session over the next few days.
Some of these bird books are more scientific in nature and present the birds from a very realistic point of view.
Others are whimsical, playful stories about birds I just wanted the kids to enjoy.
Every book needs you to turn the pages. But not every book needs you to tap it, shake it, jiggle it, or even blow it a kiss.
Innovative and timeless, Tap the Magic Tree asks you to help one lonely tree change with the seasons.
Now that’s interactive—and magical!
An award-winning, educator-approved first book on birds.
In this simple volume, educator and author Cathryn Sill uses clear, easy-to-understand language to teach children what birds are, what they do, and how they live.
Noted wildlife illustrator John Sill provides beautifully detailed, realistic paintings to showcase the birds' diverse and natural worlds, and an afterword provides more details about each bird and inspires further learning.
Award-winning artist Sylvia Long has teamed with up-and-coming author Dianna Aston to create this gorgeous and informative introduction to eggs.
From tiny hummingbird eggs to giant ostrich eggs, oval ladybug eggs to tubular dogfish eggs, gooey frog eggs to fossilized dinosaur eggs, it magnificently captures the incredible variety of eggs and celebrates their beauty and wonder.
The buzz of bees in summertime. The tracks of a bird in the winter snow.
This beautiful book captures all the sights and sounds of a child’s interactions with nature, from planting acorns or biting into crisp apples to studying tide pools or lying back and watching the birds overhead.
No matter what’s outside their windows — city streets or country meadows — kids will be inspired to explore the world around them.
Come into the woods, where the green leaves grow around and around and where, high in the branches, a nest is full of cheeping birds.
With radiant, expressive artwork, Charlotte Voake captures the essence of a forest as it comes alive in the spring, illustrating a simple text based on the traditional song "The Green Grass Grew All Around." Includes a musical score to inspire musicians of all ages
It's time to fly home for dinner! In this witty picture book from award-winning and bestselling author Mac Barnett, a mother bird gives the bird next to her a message for little Peter.
But passing messages on a telephone line isn't as simple as it sounds.
Each subsequent bird understands Mama's message according to its own very particular hobbies.
Will Peter ever get home for dinner? This uproarious interpretation of a favorite children's game will get everyone giggling and is sure to lead to countless rereads.
In a normal neighborhood, on a typical day, the birds chirp, the dogs bark and the cats meow.
When Little Brown Bird decides she doesn't want to sing the same old song, out comes a new tune that shakes up the neighborhood and changes things forever in this funny, innovative book that kids will love to read outloud.
Mama built a little nest
inside a sturdy trunk.
She used her beak to tap-tap-tap
the perfect place to bunk.
There are so many different kinds of birds—and those birds build so many different kinds of nests to keep their babies cozy.
With playful, bouncy rhyme, Jennifer Ward explores nests large and small, silky and cottony, muddy and twiggy—and all the birds that call them home!
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