My sister Anne is a high school teacher in a large east coast city. [A round of applause please...] For a little extra fun and diversion, she wants to teach a special summer course to younger kids (1^st through 4^th grades) on birds and birding. This course will be two weeks long (80 minutes each day), has a very small budget and must incorporate computer use. Seems like a cool idea, eh? She asked for some help and I suggested making use of some of the many great websites that provide information and interaction with birds. I also volunteered to plead for help from the bird-brains that visit here occasionally.

I don't know how this info could be arranged into a course, but I can list a few resources. Here are some websites I've discovered:

• The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Online Bird Guide
• and their how-to-bird information.
• They've also got some good stuff on bird feeding and attracting birds to your yard
• Then there's The Birder Blog
• CLO's Nest Box Cams
• National Geographic's Crane Cam is not currently operational since it's the wrong time of year, but they've got some videos and pictures from last spring's migration of sandhill cranes
• Of course, I and the Bird has lots of great stories and blurbs, but it's not especially organized by topic.
• About.com has some online birding info
• There are a couple of books about birding for kids
• I also found Kidwings, which is aimed precisely at this topic.
• US Fisheries & Wildlife has some resources too
• And let's not forget Dave's blog from The Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Anchorage, Alaska - lots of info about injured bird treatment, rehab, etc.
  

Anybody got any other suggestions or ideas? I'll add them as they're posted in comments.

ADDITIONS:

from John of A DC Birding Blog -

• Osprey Cam site
• The Pawtuxent Guide site
  
• The eNature site, has other non-bird stuff too
  
• The Owl Pages
  
• And a site about warblers
  
• And another site about warblers
  

Thanks John!

From a certain 'French' relation -

• The National Zoo in DC
  

Thanks Goop!

Anne - Dave and Alan have left additonal remarks in comments. Do you think you could find a local birding club or falcon club member that might volunteer to show up with a live bird or two? I bet you could... Thanks guys!

Technorati tag(s): science, nature, birding