I'm Thinking There is a Difference

  Not too long ago on a rainy afternoon, a young niece was looking at some of my bird photographs.  She made the remark that two photographs were similar.  "This bird must visit the feeders often," she said.  Well, yes....and no.  I explained that while the birds were both the same colors and had a lot of the same markings, they were, indeed, quite different.  Other than the obvious coloring...one was darker brown than the other, the beak was a dead giveaway that the birds were not one and the same.  I pointed out that while one had a cone-shaped beak used for cracking hard seeds, the other had a more of a dagger-shaped beak used for catching insects.  "Well, that does not make sense as they are both on the bird feeder." she mused.  Well, yes, the dagger beak can also be used to eat small seeds just like the conical beak can munch out on bugs. Still flipping back and forth between the pictures, she was gradually beginning to notice the differences but then made the remark "You sure have a lot of brown birds here!"  Well, that was easy to explain as well.  Both birds were females.  Yes, they are brown.  This is so that they are not easily seen while sitting on the nest.  Predators find it harder to see the mottled brown in a sun-dappled bush.  "Ahh...I understand.  If the bird was bright, anything could find it and eat the mama bird or if she got away, the babies could be eaten.  That is terrible!"   I think she was catching on to the reasoning behind the idea.  I then explained that one bird..the one with the dagger-like beak...was a female Red-winged Blackbird while the one with the cone-like beak was a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  With that we had to look up pictures of the male birds so she could see the difference.  "Wow!  Those really are bright colors!  I can see how a cat might find them."  Yep, a cat, fox, snake, hawk or any number of predators that lurk in the shadows.  "Poor Mama.  She must be hoping all of her babies are girls.  That way they won't have the bright colors that draw the bad animals."  Yep...you just have to love kids and their way of thinking!

  Explaining the difference between two similar birds sparked an interest in the child.  She told me that she was going to go out with her camera to take pictures of the birds around her home.  She promised to tell me how many different birds she found and how many she could identify by the different points that I showed her.  I gave her several reference places to look for help and promised to look at her photographs if she had some that stumped her.  

  There is a lack in the teaching of nature to our kids these days.  It seems far easier to let our flora and fauna go the wayside than to take the time to instruct our kiddos in how to identify, enjoy and protect our environment.  Perhaps, the short visit with my little niece will inspire her to notice things around her and become involved in protecting our old world.  It is in dire need of some fresh young minds to aid in its declining status.  Maybe there is hope, yet, for the generation to come.  Maybe we should start picking up in our effort to show the kids the wonders that surround them.  Maybe we should get them out of the house more and let them just be kids.