Birds
Lesson Plans & Activities

This collection of lesson plans and activities allows students to learn about birds through scavenger hunts, activity books, hands-on activities, and more. This section of the collection is beneficial to educators and teachers, as well as students who are interested in learning more about birds in a fun and engaging way.

A Laysan albatross seabird on the right with white feathers checks on its chick on the left with dark gray feathers, there is a pale blue sky in the background and beige sand at their feet.

Clues from Albatross: Determining Ocean Health

Before leaving the nest, albatross chicks regurgitate a mass of indigestible material called a bolus. Boluses give us clues as to the types of food and trash eaten by albatross parents at sea. In this lesson, students will use professional photographs of a bolus to perform a “virtual dissection” and analysis.

Seabird touching the water

Seabird Scavenger Hunt

Go on a seabird scavenger hunt in Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary! Click through the Cordell Bank seabird pages to find answers on this scavenger “web quest”. It includes a video, various online resources, and a virtual seabirding trip.

Two seabirds standing on two turtles

Seabirds and Shorebirds of Hawai’i Activity Book

Learn about the seabirds and shorebirds that inhabit Hawai’i through a word search, crafts, and more in this activity book.

Seabird floating on water

Winged Ambassadors Activity Package

Albatrosses, charismatic and threatened seabirds, are ambassadors for a clean ocean. They traverse vast oceanic regions searching for floating food. Along their journeys, they ingest plastic trash and are hooked in fisheries. These five lessons use inquiry-based science instruction, aligned to standards for grades 6-8 with extensions for grades 9-12.

A poster for journey through Papahānaumokuākea

A Journey Through Papahānaumokuākea

Students can travel through the islands and atolls of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument with this fun activity book.

A shearwater being tracked

Tracking Great Shearwaters

Each year Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary attaches satellite tags to 10 great shearwaters to follow their feeding forays around the Gulf of Maine and nearby NW Atlantic waters. Some tags survive well into the winter migration. Participating teachers and schools can obtain a data set of daily locations (one point a day per bird -- emailed as spreadsheets every one to two weeks) and two maps -- one of the Gulf of Maine and one of the Atlantic Ocean to follow the tracks of the birds in their classrooms.

Makani poster

Makani: The albatross that cares for the land

This interactive comic takes students through the Hawaiian Islands with Makani, the albatross who cares for the land.

Baby seabird standing on a trunk of a tree

Manu O Kū-Gami

Utilize the Manu O Kū-Gami to make origami Mano O Kū- a significant bird in Hawaiian culture.

An eagle flying by the beach shore

Channel Islands Live Bald Eagle Webcams

The Bald Eagle Webcams provide an intimate view of the breeding and nesting behavior of bald eagles at the Channel Islands. In spring 2006, the first chick to hatch unaided by humans on the Channel Islands in over 50 years made headlines across the country. Thrilled with the public interest in this historic event, the National Park Service and its partners established webcams that bring live, streaming images of bald eagle nests into the schools and homes of millions of Americans.