"The Burgess Bird Book for Children" Resources

We love old books, even though we use modern technologies such as the Kindle App on the iPad, to access most of them in our home. It is quite ironic, but many of the books on our iPad are from the 1800's and early 1900's.

The kids and I are starting our journey this week in The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton W. Burgess (1919). We are planning to read one chapter a day, but we may take a few extra days as the interest develops for various birds.

The dialogue between Peter Rabbit and Jenny Wren in the book is simply delightful.

Jenny Wren

"That is one of the most sensible things I have heard you say," chattered Jenny Wren. "The more I see of bright colors the better I like brown. It always is in good taste. It goes well with almost everything. It is neat and it is useful. If there is need of getting out of sight in a hurry you can do it if you wear brown. But if you wear bright colors it isn't so easy. I never envy anybody who happens to have brighter clothes than mine. I've seen dreadful things happen all because of wearing bright colors." ~Jenny Wren, The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton W. Burgess

It is a lovely story book which covers a large variety of bird species.

Author Thornton W. Burgess relates the purpose of the book in the preface to the book:

"Its primary purpose is to interest the little child in, and to make him acquainted with, those feathered friends he is most likely to see. Because there is no method of approach to the child mind equal to the story, this method of conveying information has been adopted. So far as I am aware the book is unique in this respect. In its preparation an earnest effort has been made to present as far as possible the important facts regarding the appearance, habits and characteristics of our feathered neighbors. It is intended to be at once a story book and an authoritative handbook. While it is intended for little children, it is hoped that children of larger growth may find in it much of both interest and helpfulness."

This zoology book is a true classic gem!

Here are a few resources we are using as we read The Burgess Bird Book for Children:

A Burgess Bird Book Companion - Satori Smiles blog
-A Homeschooling mom and blogger offers a wonderful listing of resources to compliment each chapter in The Burgess Bird Book for Children. I love that page references to The Handbook of Nature Study are included.

The Burgess Bird Book - The Baldwin Project
-We are reading the full text of the book online at this website which includes color illustrations.

The Burgess Bird Book for Children - Kindle Store
-We downloaded this free Kindle version on our Kindle App to read on the iPad. This version does not include the illustrations.

Montessori Cards for The Burgess Bird Book for Children
-These are free PDF downloads of beautifully illustrated cards to correspond with the story.

Copywork for The Burgess Bird Book for Children
-This resource provides manuscript and cursive copywork resources.

The Burgess Bird Book for Children - post at Curriculum Choice
-This is a great post with ideas on how to enjoy this classic work with children.

Here are a few resources for an overall thematic study of birds:

Birds Lapbook with Study Guide - A Journey Through Learning
-This lapbook is only $5 for the month of January! This is perfect for our studies of birds.

Handbook of Nature Study (1911)
-This is a free version of this great nature study classic work by Anna Botsford Comstock.

All About Birds - The Cornell Lab of Ornithology
-This is a comprehensive resource for studying birds!

Coloring Book of Feeder Birds - Cornell
-This is a free 50 page PDF Coloring Book with study questions.

Project FeederWatch
-You can participate in counting feeder birds for science with The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. They have resources available for homeschool families.

What Bird
-This is another extensive resource for studying birds. Here is an example of the House Wren.

Do you love to study birds? If you have any great resources to recommend, please let me know so that we can check them out.

Many blessings!