Wooden Playhouses Blog

Children are fascinated by wildlife, even in their own backyard, and bird watching is perhaps the easiest way for them exercise their curiosity about the natural world.  A wide variety of birds visit or live alongside of us and provide many opportunities to learn more about them.  Many times a parent can feel overwhelmed and not know how to incorporate their child’s love of birds into everyday play or a unique learning experience.  It actually is easier than you think!  You just need birds and wooden playhouses.  Preferably, just one wooden playhouse that your child can use as their naturalist den with the outside of the playhouse as their bird attraction point.

If you follow the tips below, you’re sure to attract many different birds to the outdoor play house where your child can have a wonderful and fun time learning more about birds.  As a parent, you will feel relief and happiness knowing that you are encouraging a life long, enriching learning experience in a safe environment.

Try these child-friendly tips that will surely help your little bird lover to fully enjoy and expand their fascination with birds.

1.  Build a bird house.  There are inexpensive and easy-to-assemble bird house kits available at local hardware or discount stores that can be painted.  Kids will enjoy picking out the bird house, painting it and then putting it up near or on the playhouse.  There are many different kinds of bird houses, so have some fun and research which birds you would like to move in to your bird house.  Just make sure the bird house is high enough off the ground that animals won’t drive the birds away.

2.  Bird feeders are essential if you want to encourage attracting more birds to the playhouse.  The type of seeds that are in the bird feeder will dictate the types of birds that you will attract.  Take your child to a discount store and show them the wide variety of seeds and bird feed mixes that are available and have them decide which birds they would like to see at the feeder. You may want to have several different feeders for different seed types (and thus different birds).  Some birds such as Blue Jays are quite aggressive so a couple of feeder options for smaller birds may help.

3.  Birds need water and if you have a bird feeder, you should also have a bird bath to increase more birds.  You can get bird baths at hardware or discount stores.  Many times you can find bird baths at thrift stores, if you wanted an inexpensive alternative.

4.  Once birds start to come to the wooden playhouses on a regular basis, your little bird enthusiast will need binoculars, a bird watching field guide, and a journal.  The most avid bird watchers cross off the birds, in the field guide, that they see at their feeder and bird bath.  Your child will enjoy the challenge of identifying birds and marking them off in their own bird watching field guide book.  What’s more, they will become excited and want to tell you which birds they saw that day.

5. There are many bird calling audios and videos available at the library or through a book store.  Select 3-5 common birds that are visiting the playhouse bird feeder on a regular basis and find out what their bird calls using the materials from the library or book store. Have fun with this activity.  See if your child can identify the 3-5 bird calls and then go to the playhouse to listen for these calls and verify visually if you correctly identified the bird.

6.  A true bird naturalist will have an observation journal that they carry with them to record or draw birds of interest, the location of bird nests or newly hatched baby birds.  A video camera is also a great way to record and observe birds, if your youngster doesn’t want to draw.

Parents can foster their child’s love of birds just with a few ideas to attract birds using wooden playhouses as bases for their young birding enthusiast.  The next time you hear a bird call, don’t be too surprised if you little one is able to identify the call and point out the location of the bird while throwing out some fun facts too!

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