This guide to the birds of New Jersey is arranged by season and includes photographs, audio recordings of bird calls, and information on the most common bird species in the state.
Many of the entries include links to more information about the bird species.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This well-organized, easy-to-navigate resource can be used by a range of students at different ability levels.
The horizontal toolbar will allow students to quickly jump to any season.
Additional Prerequisites
If students are using the resource independently, they will need headphones in order to listen to the audio recordings.
Students should pause the previous recording before they click play on the next recording to avoid multiple recordings playing simultaneously.
Differentiation
Elementary science classes could use this resource to group bird species by habitat type. Students could fill out a chart or make a bar graph showing which bird species live in which habitat.
Environmental clubs or science classes could take a field trip to a preserve, park, or even to the school playground to look for (or listen for) birds. Students could use the guide to identify which bird species they see or hear and then think about how that might change if climate change continues to progress.
Biology classes could use this resource to discuss evolution. Students could identify similarities and differences between the bird species and discuss why certain adaptations may have occurred or what may be necessary to survive in the future.
In order to connect this resource to climate change, you could combine it with this video about the possible climate migration of New Jersey's state bird, the Eastern Goldfinch, this interactive map on animal migration shifts due to climate change, and this Khan Academy lesson on protecting biodiversity.
Scientist Notes
The resource describes common bird species found in New Jersey and articulates their habitats and seasonal changes in breeding. This is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Science and Engineering
LS3: Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
3-LS3-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
3-LS3-2 Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
HS-LS4-4 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations.
