Go outside and get to know the birds in your neighborhood! Can you find:

Birds eating, drinking, and taking shelter

• A bird eating seeds
• A bird eating insects or worms
• A bird drinking water
• A bird hiding in a tree or a bush

A habitat has food, water, shelter, and space for animals. You can help create bird habitat near your house by providing a dish of water, or planting flowers with seeds that birds can eat.

Birds interacting with people

• A bird near your house
• A bird using man-made features (eating from a garden, resting on a telephone wire, drinking from a bird bath, etc.)
• A bird helping you (pollinating flowers, eating insect pests, etc.)
• A cultural representation of a bird (painting, sign, petroglyph, constellation, etc.)

Birds can be helped and harmed by human behavior. Cats and window strikes kill lots of birds every year. You can help by keeping your cats inside, and by placing stickers or hanging strings on the outside of your windows to block reflections.

Birds of the Season

• American Robin

Watch for these birds running or hopping along the ground, looking for insects and worms. (Photo by Bob Walker)

• Broad-tailed Hummingbird

These tiny, quick birds can be seen hovering near flowers or feeders. (Photo by Deborah Halter)

• House Finch

These thick-beaked birds tend to be seen in flocks. They often visit seed feeders. (Photo by Bob Walker)

• Wilson’s Warbler

Look for a flash of yellow hopping from branch to branch, as this bird looks for insects. (Photo by Bob Walker)

Some birds live in your neighborhood year-round, and others migrate, or move from place to place with the seasons. As the season advances, keep looking for these birds. Which birds seem to stick around, and which ones do you see more or less as the seasons change? Some of our birds spend their winters in Mexico or Central America and return to breed in summer, some winter here and fly north to breed, and some use our area as a rest stop during the migration season on their way further north or south!

Tell us what birds you saw in your neighborhood by sending us an email to takeitoutside@peecnature.org! Ready for more? Try looking for the 20 most common birds of Los Alamos! If you see a bird outside, PEEC’s bird guide can help you identify it.