Our Grade Four Class Blog The Case of the Curious Classroom 

Today was an awesome day because we got to Skype with Bird Studies Canada. They were called biologists and caught all kinds of birds. They showed us 4 or 5 birds and 1 baby owl. The biologists live in Ontario and they study birds. There was the Ruby Crowned Kinglet.  It was as light as a loonie, which is about 7 grams. The Ruby Crowned Kinglet bird was red, brown, and black. We  saw a Fox Sparrow, which was the second bird. The Fox Sparrow looked fuzzy like a fox.  The Fox Sparrow had sharp claws so it could dig with its’ feet underground to find food.  The third bird was a Saw-Whet Owl. It had a small head. The last bird was a Yellow Rumped Warbler. The Yellow Rumped Warbler was yellowish and brownish. The Yellow Rumped Warbler had a yellow spot on its tail. The Yellow Rumped Warbler had a thin long bill.  After they showed us the birds they let them fly away. They used a tong and put the band into the hole that was on the tong and put it on the bird. It was funny when they weighed the birds because they had to  put the bird upside down onto the black scale.The reason they had to put them upside down was so they would not fly away. The birds stayed there for a few days and then they fly back into the wild again. They didn’t show us a robin or a blue jay. They also had nets to catch the birds. They had to check on them every fifteen to twenty minutes. The best thing about Skyping was the cute owl.

We Skyped with Bird Studies Canada. They live in Ontario. They were also biologists. They showed us the Ruby Crowned Kinglet, the Fox Sparrow, and the Warbler. We were hoping we could see an owl but the biologist doubted they would catch one.  The biologists had a surprise for us!

They taught us a lot of things like the claws and how they band the birds.They put the band on  slowly on with a tong.They also taught us about the beak. The Fox Sparrow was very fuzzy like a fox.  It was tiny, had gray head, and brown body.  It even enjoys seeds and has a big bill. The Ruby Crowned Kinglet weighed as light as a loonie, which is 7 grams.The Ruby Crowned Kinglet also had a red crown on its’ head. The  Warbler weighed as much as 5 loonies.  The Warbler had a black and yellow rump on its back. It also had a yellow bottom. The Warbler enjoys berries. The Saw-Whet Owl was a bit chubby with big yellow eyes. The Saw-Whet  Owl had a high pitched coo, coo, coo sound. It had a white catlike face. It was really enjoyable learning about the birds because it was my first time learning about all of the different birds. My favourite part was were they taught us about the Saw-Whet Owl because it looked so cute!

Today was an awesome day because we Skyped with Bird Studies in Ontario.They showed us all types of birds that they caught.The first bird they showed us was the Ruby Crowned Kinglet. It was cool because it had a red circle filled in red on top of its’ head.  It also weighs as much as a loonie. It had yellow stripes on its wings. The second bird was the Fox Sparrow.  It looked just like a fox.  It had long claws that it used to dig under the ground to find its food. It had a chubby body and it had brown,white, and black feathers.

The third one was a surprise! It was a baby Saw-Whet Owl!!   It was so cute.  It had brown, white, and black colours on it. The fourth bird was a Warbler.  It also had a yellow spot on its tail.  The warbler had a thin long bill and a slender body. The coolest thing they showed us was how they put on the band. They used a tong and put the band into the hole that was on the tong and put it on the bird. It was so funny when they weighed them because they had to put the bird upside down onto this black scale. The reason why they had to put the bird in upside down was because they could not fly away. The birds would stay around for a few days and then they would fly out into the wild. They also had nets outside and they would check them every fifteen to twenty minutes. The cool thing was that when they held the birds they took their feet and put them between their fingers and held them tight to place the band on.The biologist said that it did not hurt them. The biologists would catch about 300 birds in one morning.  My favourite things that I enjoyed about Skyping was when they showed us the baby owl, how they weigh them, and how they put on the band.