Press-out and learn about 10 beautiful birds Kate Read L auren Fairgrieve
Kate Read L auren Fairgrieve
How to make your birds Carefully press out all the pieces of your bird, making sure the slots and hole for hanging are pressed-out too. . . . and repeat with the tail piece. Take your wing piece and slide it into the slot on the back of the bird . . . Your bird is now complete! Hang it up using some colourful string or ribbon, then create some more feathered friends so you have your own fantastic flying flock. tailbody wings 2 3 4 When you are finished with your beautiful birds, press the pieces back into the sturdy board pages and hardback binding so that you can use them again and again.
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Woodpecker
Male and female adult barn owls look similar, but baby owls, called owlets, are white with long fluffy feathers. As they grow, they lose their baby feathers and begin to look more like their parents.
Ba rn Owl
Barn owls are commonly found throughout the UK and Europe – in fact, you can find them on every continent of the world except for Antarctica! You can identify them by their heart-shaped face, large dark eyes and white underbellies. Their backs and wings are a beautiful golden-brown colour, decorated with grey spots.
Barn owl families don’t just roost in barns: you can spot them beside riverbanks and in farmland too. However, they are mostly active at night. They can sometimes be seen in the daylight, around dawn and dusk. Why is the barn owl called the barn owl? Well, they became known in the UK for being seen roosting in barns. However, the barn owl also used to be known as the ‘Ghost Owl’. It makes an eerie screeching sound, which can be terrifying to hear when you can’t see the source of the noise in the darkness! In other cultures, owls are much more positive symbols. The ancient Greeks linked Athena, goddess of wisdom, to an owl that became a protective symbol in battle and business. To this day, you can still spot different owls around the Temple or Athena in Athens, Greece.
Adult blue tits eat a variety of seeds and insects, but blue tit chicks are fed caterpillars – one chick can eat up to 100 caterpillars a day!
You can see blue tits all year round. They are commonly found in Europe, although they have been spotted as far away as Turkey. In Europe, you’ll usually see them in gardens, parks and woodlands.
Male and female blue tits look almost identical, except that the blue on a male blue tit is even brighter than it is on a female.
Blue Tit
Their head, tail and wing feathers are a bright blue – but you can also recognise them because of their white face, black strip along their eyeline, and their yellowish-green underbelly.
Blue tits belong to the tit family of birds – which used to be called ‘titmice’ because of their small size. The mouse part of the word comes from old English, because ‘mase’ used to mean ‘small bird’. The mouse part of the family name has been lost over time, so now all birds in this family are simply ‘tits’. Seeing a blue tit is usually a good sign for things to come. If you see a blue tit flying alone, an old superstition states that you will soon find new love! A Celtic belief is similar – if you see a blue tit flying alone you will have one great love in your lifetime.
