Learning About Birds - Activities For Preschoolers

Here are lots of resources to learn all about birds for kids. Find lots of bird activities for preschoolers, including crafts, recipes, and songs during our bird themed week!

Learn About Birds for Preschoolers - Fun activities and resources - Image with Text

Find lots of bird activities for preschoolers to learn all about birds

Hi! This week at home, we did a lot of activities to learn all about birds! I've shared details of the bird activities we did below, including links to the resources that we used.

As a recap, here are the bird themed activities I did at home with my preschooler to learn about birds:

We watched short YouTube videos to learn about birds
We learned a new catchy song about birds
My kid made this awesome bird nest craft with scraps around the home
My preschooler helped prepare a homemade snack platter and we had a picnic and pretended to eat like a bird
We painted using feathers and made a cool artwork
We read lots of books together about birds and looked at pictures
We watched several episodes of Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! shows
My kid did a bird-themed Cosmic Kid Yoga

I've broken down below the activities we did by day, specifying which topics we focused on each day.

We learned what makes a bird a bird

On Monday, we started the week learning about the characteristics of a bird. We did this with videos (links below) and books (recommendations below). Then we did a fun artwork by painting with feathers.

What characteristics make a bird a bird?

These are the characteristics of a bird that my preschooler focused on learning:

Birds have beaks.
Birds have wings. Many, but not all birds can fly.
Birds lay eggs.
Birds have feathers. They don't have fur or hair.
Many birds, but not all, make nests.

Fun songs and videos to teach a preschooler about birds

The first video is a short preschool bird song that's super catchy. He thought it was so funny, and we keep singing it around the house now. Dance like a bird!

The second video is informative, but broken down in a way that a preschooler would understand.

We painted with feathers for our art-based bird activity

Once we were done with the videos, we used feathers to paint. You can see exactly how we did this in the post, including cool patterns that we made with the feathers.

This is a fun messy play activity that's so easy to set up and do at home. We made one big painting this week, but I'm sure we will do it again because painting with feathers is so much fun.

kid using feather to paint art and craft

We learned about bird nests and made a bird nest craft

On Tuesday, we learned about bird nests. Some interesting points my preschooler enjoyed learning about:

Birds make nests to keep their eggs safe.
Nests come in all shapes and sizes. A weaver nest is particularly cool.
Not all birds make nests. Some birds bury the eggs, some birds sneak their eggs into another bird’s nest.

My preschooler made a bird nest craft to get hands on learning

To learn about nests, we made a bird nest craft using stuff from around the home. My preschooler and I pretended that we were birds and scavenged and collected the materials around the house. Then we tried to weave and get a nest to stick together.

Here’s our full post on how to make a bird nest for preschoolers, including pictures of how we made it.

Making a bird nest craft - final nest made by my kid

Here are additional fun resources for learning about bird nests

We love the Cat in The Hat Knows a Lot About! series. Season 1 Episode 3, How robins build their nests, is a fun and engaging episode to learn more about bird nests.

We also read this book about birds, which as great pictures and explanations.

We learned about what birds like to eat

On Wednesday, we explored what birds like to eat.

We did a little research about what birds like to eat

We did this by watching the short video below. Then, we did a little research and flipping through our books about bird to see if we could find more about what birds eat.

We discussed what an index to the book tells us, and also tried to use the index to find the information.

Resources for preschoolers to learn about what birds eat

This video is great! My kid watched it several times, and he was really fascinated by the different types of beaks that birds have. There's a little quiz at the end of the show which he enjoyed.

We made a snack platter filled with foods that birds like to eat for an hands on bird activity

After we watched the video and researched our books on what birds eat, we made a snack plate filled with some things that birds eat.

Here’s the post to see what we put on our eat like a bird snack plate.

In the post, I list out the steps that a preschooler can help with in the kitchen. There's also a long list of food suggestions to use.

Our pretend picnic to eat like a bird - nuts, fruits and seeds

My preschooler learned about bird migrations

On Thursday, my preschooler and I learned about migration. It’s a big word and a complicated subject for a preschool mind! This is the first time that we had discussed what migration is.

Resources we used to learn about bird migration

We always love a good episode of SciShow Kids, and this episode clearly explained migration.

This Ted-Ed video is also so nicely put together. I really enjoyed it. My preschooler found it a little boring. But I’m trying to introduce him to different types of videos. It’s really worth a watch alongside your kid.

We finished off learning about birds with this fun bird-themed Cosmic Kid Yoga

If you've never tried Cosmic Kid Yoga, it's a great way to get a bit of exercise while watching TV. This episode is about Nelson the pigeon.

Additional resources to help a preschooler learn all about birds

We loved these helpful bird books for preschoolers

This Cat in the Hat Fine Feathered Friends book clearly teaches the characteristics of a bird in an easy to follow text. We read this book together and used it to review what makes a bird a bird.

This DK book is a good nonfiction read with informative pictures. The text is also a good length, with just the right amount of information. This is the book that our library recommended.

These are the Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About! episodes that we watched through the week

My preschooler watched one episode a day after he finished his lunch. His favorite episode was the one about penguins. Spoiler: the penguin races a bird that can fly.

Season 1 Episode 3: How robins build their nests
Season 2 Episode 19: Ostriches
Season 1 Episode 11: Penguins
Season 2 Episode 8: Peregrine falcons

One more interesting video about birds for kids

Here's one more interesting video about birds. This video is very fascinating, but it is a bit too tricky for a preschooler. I had to watch this one with my son to explain it to him.

Hope these resources help you learn about birds at home with your preschooler

I hope these resources can help you explore more about birds while at home. We really enjoyed doing the hands on activities this week - feather painting, bird nest craft and eat like a bird picnic.