Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson III · Topic 1: Bird study: how a bird is made
3. How birds fly
Goal: Your child can explain that a bird flies by pressing down on the air with its wings, and that the tail steers like a rudder.
You'll need
- A paper fan or a stiff piece of cardboard
- An umbrella (for a windy day or a quick test indoors)
- A wing feather and a tail feather (chicken, duck or craft-store)
- A chance to watch a hen or other birds take off and land
- Nature notebook
What's in the book
The leading thought, the method (open the hen's wing, use a dried fowl's wing) and seventeen questions about fans, vaulting poles, umbrellas, the shape of wing feathers, the up and down strokes, and the tail as rudder.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Any season, any place with birds: pigeons in a park, ducks on a pond, chickens in a yard. Windy days are especially good for this lesson.
Safety: chickens and ducks can carry germs even when they look clean and healthy. Wash hands with soap and water after touching a bird, a feather or anything in the coop, and keep hands away from faces until then.
Keep the big idea in mind
Read this to yourself:
A bird flies by pressing down upon the air with its wings, which are made especially for this purpose. The bird's tail acts as a rudder during flight.
Comstock suggested the teacher open the hen's wings for the children. Only do this if the owner handles the bird; otherwise just watch the hens flap.
Can you push the air?
Hand your child the fan.
Can you press against the air with a fan?
Do you think a bird's wings correspond to our arms? If so why?
Let your child flap the fan up and down and feel the push.
The umbrella test
If you carry an umbrella on a windy morning, which catches more wind, the under or the top side? Why is this? Does the curved surface of the wing act in the same way?
Open the umbrella and pull it quickly down toward the ground, then lift it up. Which way is harder? (Stay away from strong gusts, and don't jump off anything holding an umbrella.)
Look at a wing feather
Take a wing feather. Are the barbs as long on one side of the quill as on the other? Do they lie at the same angle from the quill on both sides? If not why?
Is the quill of the feather curved?
Compare a tail feather with a wing feather and describe the difference.
Watch them fly
Watch birds take off and land.
Why do birds flap their wings when they start to fly?
Do you think a bird could sail through the air without something to steer with? What is the bird's rudder?
Does the hen when she flies keep the tail closed or open like a fan?
Put it into words
Ask your child to explain to you how a bird gets up into the air. Then share the leading thought.
Nature notebook
Draw a wing feather and a tail feather side by side. Mark the narrow side and the wide side of the wing feather. Add a quick sketch of a bird in flight with its tail spread.
Afterwards
Watch for young birds in late spring and early summer. Comstock asks: "Have you ever seen a young bird whose tail is not yet grown, try to fly? If so, how did it act?"
Tip
Comstock's "what is the bird's rudder" questions work best if you let your child guess wrong first and then watch real birds.