My Birders

Shawn and Lizzie have taken an interest in bird watching lately. Shawn hung two feeders in the backyard and he and Lizzie have spent quite a bit of time observing them (well, Shawn observes, Lizzie mostly just exclaims "birdies!" the whole time). It got so serious, that we finally went to the library to get some books on bird identification so that they could properly name all the varieties of backyard birds.

So far, bird identification is pretty hard. A lot of birds are brown and move pretty quickly, so it can be difficult to distinguish what their features and markings look like. We also don't have a camera high-tech enough to zoom in on the birds and take quality photos. Colorful birds are more simple. For example, we are regularly visited by our state bird, the cardinal...

And his wife, the female cardinal, who has slightly different coloring...

Also, the beautiful blue jay...

And a house finch, which I named Atticus...

I have to admit, I kind of got bored of bird watching after the first few hours, but Shawn and Lizzie are very dedicated. I know it won't be long before they are experts in bird identification!

-- Lisa