Hello friends!
We’re the Ostmo family, and we love learning about countries and people. Our oldest daughter, Melaya, has tons of friends all around the world!
Today we’ll take a look at something different. We’ll be talking about the coolest birds around the world.
Melaya loves birds and she thinks they are amazing creatures. She always wishes to fly like the birds.
She loves the colors and the beauty of birds. Melaya likes to watch birds flying around outside our windows at Learning Tail HQ in London, England. She loves to watch the birds in their natural habitat and she thinks they are very beautiful. She often goes on long walks around London with her mum and dad, looking for new species of birds.
What do you like about birds?
Hummingbird, a Bird That Can Fly Backwards
Melaya has a friend named Pedro from Brazil. Last they spoke, Pedro told Melaya of a cool bird species he knows, the hummingbird. Hummingbirds are very small birds that live in warm parts of North America, Central America and South America. They have iridescent feathers in different colors, but their most amazing features is that they can move their wings really fast and can fly backward as well as forwards!
Shoebill Stork Always Looks Mad
Now in Gambia, an African country over 3,000 miles away from London lives Mwansa. He told Melaya about an amazing bird that he saw in Gambia, a Shoebill Stork, a large bird that lives in Africa. Shoebill Stork is one the largest storks reaching up to five feet tall, or around 1.50 meters.
This bird has a massive head and peak that allows them to reach into deep pools for fish. Also, look at its eyes! looks like it’s always angry!
Mwansa said the Shoebill is also a very shy bird and it is almost impossible to see one unless you know where they live, this is because they spend most of their time hiding in reed beds.
The Shrike is Andrea’s Favorite Bird
Pretty far away from Gambia, in Colombia, lives Andrea another of Melaya’s friends. Andrea said her uncle is a zookeeper and he tells her a lot about different amazing birds. Her favorite bird is the shrike.
She said the shrike is a small bird with a long beak and beautiful blue feathers on its wings and tail that lives in North America. Andrea said she wants to be an ornithologist when she grows up because she loves birds so much! An ornithologist is a person who studies or is an expert on birds and Andre wants to learn everything about birds and their habitats. She also wants to teach other people about birds and travel the world to see all kinds of amazing birds like the shrike!
When Melaya asked Andrea what she was most excited about, she said it was the chance to see a shrike up close. She said they’re very rare and only live in one small area of Canada.
Would you like to teach people about something when you grow up?
You Can Find One of the Coolest Birds in Mexico
Far away, in Mexico, over 5,000 miles away from Melaya’s home, lives another friend named Gabriella. Gabriella said she loves the Toucan because it is so colorful and has a big beak.
She said the toucan lives in South America, and it eats fruit. Gabriella said she wants to be a vet when she grows up, just like her mom!
Gabriella’s mom is a veterinarian, and she works in Mexico. She said that the toucan has many colors because it lives in the rainforest, which has lots of bright plants. Gabriella’s mom said that toucans eat fruit, nuts and sometimes like to eat insects. She said that sometimes people will keep a toucan as a pet, but they are really hard to take care of because they need special foods and live in warm places! Melaya thinks it would be fun to have a toucan as a pet because it’s so colorful and has such a big beak!
Would you like to have a bird as a pet?
The Bird That Can Mimic Every Sound: The Lyrebird
Now, in Australia lives another friend named Amelia. Amelia said to Melaya that she thinks the lyrebird is the coolest bird she knows. She learned about it in school where her teacher said the lyrebird is an enormous bird that lives in Australia and can mimic any sound it hears, even other birds plus human voices. That’s amazing! Amelia also likes to mimic every sound she hears, but of course, she is not as good as the lyrebird.
Do you like to mimic sounds too?
There are a lot more amazing birds that Melaya would love to learn about such as blue jays, bald eagles and peregrine falcons.
Tell us in the comments what other cool birds you know! If you want to learn more about bird species around the world, make sure to download the activity pack. We have flashcards, a learning guide, handwriting sheets, and drawings pages all dedicated to them!
Melaya loves chatting with kids from all over the world! If you want to teach Melaya about where you live or your favorite activities, please tell your mom or dad to use @learningtail on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok to get in touch with us.
Ciao friends, until next time!
