Eagles Archives

Posted on January 20, 2025January 20, 2025 by Tricia Hodges — Leave a comment

A Bald Eagle Study for Kids: Comprehensive and Fun!

Learn about this mighty bird with a bald eagle study for kids that includes nature study, journaling and nature craft activities plus hands on art ideas.

This bald eagle study for kids includes resources for observation, journaling, birds of prey facts and more.

Bald Eagle as National Symbol of the United States and America’s National Bird

The Bald Eagle is National Emblem of the United States of America and has been since 1782. The eagle has been considered a symbol of strength since Roman legions used this bird as their symbol. After its adoption as the national emblem, the eagle then was added to government documents, flags, buildings and more. The eagle is part of the Great Seal of the United States as well as the seal of the President of the United States. That seal is also on the one dollar bill.

The bald eagle bird spent time on the endangered list starting in 1978. Its numbers recovered and the bald eagle was removed from the list in 2007.

Bald Eagle Study for Kids

Bald eagles build nests with large sticks. They usually choose to build their nest at the top of a lone tree or on a rock in a very high place. This gives the eagle a great view for hunting.

Why is this bird of prey called a bald eagle? A bald eagle is actually not bald. But the white feathers on its head make it distinct and gives this majestic bird its name.

Enjoy a video all about bald eagles for kids.

Bald Eagle Nature Study for Kids and Other Birds of Prey

Though The Handbook of Nature Study does not include the eagle, we can use so many of the suggestions for other bird of prey.

Use your favorite bird field guide to study the range and habits of the bald eagle.

If you have the opportunity to observe eagles near your home, plan a time to! If not, there are many bird observations and backyard bird activities you can enjoy during your outdoor hour.

See how Barb’s family visited an eagle habitat about 45 minutes from their home.

Members can follow the Study on the Hawk with detailed observations as well as advanced studies.

Amy Law shared these wonderful resources on birds of prey! “My husband has been a falconer for years; so this week’s Outdoor Hour Challenge on hawks is a special one to our family. Through the years, my husband has had a few different kinds of birds of prey. . . Red Tail, Harris Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, Gyr Falcon, and a Kestrel. They’re amazing to watch close up, but also so amazing to watch in their natural habitat as well!”

Video by Amy Law can also be viewed on Instagram.

Here are five tips to help you find and study hawks or other birds of prey this week!

1. Birds of prey can be found everywhere. . .in the woods, in fields, along roadsides. It’s not uncommon to find a nest in a neighborhood these days.

2. You can often find Red Tails sitting on the top of utility poles along the roads or up in the tallest tree around. They sit up high, while they’re looking for small animals for food.
3. Kestrels are often seen sitting on telephone wires or on wire fences. These tiny birds of prey are so cute!

4. Especially in winter, look for the birds’ silhouette in tall trees. Their colors will often blend in, but the silhouette is still there.

5. For close up study, often a nature center will have a bird of prey that has been injured and can’t live in the wild anymore. Also, zoos, of course!

Most of all, enjoy studying these beautiful birds together!.

Eagle art lesson by Nana of You ARE an ARTiST

Eagle Nature Journaling and Art Lesson

Our sister site has an eagle nest art lesson that Nana shared in her Forest Nature course in You ARE an ARTiST Clubhouse membership.

Bird Nature Study Activities in Homeschool Nature Study Membership

You can enjoy these resources in Homeschool Nature Study membership:

Bird Outdoor Hour Challenge Curriculum
All About Birds Outdoor Hour Challenge Curriculum
Feather Coloring Page
Bird Feet Observations
Bird Life Cycle

and much more!

Are you ready? Enjoy these Great Backyard Bird Count Homeschool Resources as you watch birds in your backyard this February!

More Bird Homeschool Studies

For your resident ornithologists, besides this bald eagle study for kids, we have even more fun to explore!

Learn More About Outdoor Hour Challenges with The Handbook of Nature Study

Our Homeschool Nature Study members have access to endless year round nature studies, Handbook of Nature Study references, follow up nature journaling activities, notebook pages and resources to inspire and guide you.

Find Out More About Homeschool Nature Study Membership with Access to ALL Studies!

Be inspired. Be encouraged. Get outdoors!

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Barb — 5 Comments

November Nature Study – Autumn Hiking Delights

The mountains and forest had been calling for us to come and explore the season before the winter sets in any time now. The forecast was for partly cloudy skies and perhaps a few snow flurries so we didn’t plan too long of a hike just in case we needed to move quickly to shelter. The sun actually poked through the clouds a few times and that was a welcome treat.

Right near where we parked the car and started on the trail we noticed that a beaver had gnawed this tree down…can you believe how strong that beaver must be? We weren’t sure if he was going to come back for the log but we marveled at his ability to bring down a rather large tree.

We hiked through the mixed conifer and deciduous forest, noting that the aspens were all bare but still very beautiful. We listened to the bird sounds and a squirrel chattering too. We saw and heard Steller’s jays, common ravens, California gulls, mallard ducks, white-headed woodpeckers, Canada geese, and an osprey. It was a great day for birds.

We stopped along the trail to view the meadow and marsh. This spot is known to be an eagle habitat so I had my eyes open wide hoping to see one this day. And…..I was not disappointed. A bald eagle flew very majestically above the meadow from the pine forest and then out over the lake. I was very excited to see this graceful bird as he flew right overhead and then disappeared. It was a moment.

In the photo above you can see how it was snowing up on the mountain peak and we even at one point had soft flakes of snow coming down on us but it didn’t last long or stick to the ground at all. It was a perfect day for a hike.

Journal tip: It can be overwhelming when you have so many subjects to write about in your journal. It helps to focus on just one of the highlights like our encounter with the eagle and a list of birds. I don’t like to draw birds so I used a photo and then answered the three main questions: when, where, what.

When I take my creative daughter with me, we always find a way to do something fun. This time we settled on making an Andy Goldworthy style art piece using natural items. There were loads of pinecones on the ground so we decided to feature those in our sculpture.

While we were busy with our sculpture, my husband added this line of pinecones leading down the stairway to our artwork. It made me smile and feel appreciative of the support of a great guy for his nature-loving wife.

On the hike back we found a patch of thistles to admire. After studying them this autumn I have a new found appreciation for their features. So pretty even now.

We also saw where the beaver is attempting to build a dam across the creek. The creek is flooding part of the trail right now because of the water backed up behind the dam. We had to circle around to avoid needing to wade through the creek. This is exactly where we saw the mama and two baby bear cubs earlier this fall…no signs of them now.

As always, we were rewarded for our efforts to get outdoors and do some exploring. The informal nature study opportunities were everywhere and I made some mental notes on topics we were curious about as we hiked along. Some afternoon on a cold winter day I will pull out some field guides and we will research a few of the answers to our questions. Nature study truly is a life project.

Posted on October 15, 2007 by Barb — 2 Comments

Eagle Watching at Taylor Creek

Yesterday we took another shot at finding some eagles to watch. We have an eagle habitat about 45 minutes from our house, near a salmon spawning creek. We went up there a few weeks ago to watch the salmon and we thought we saw an eagle circling overhead, up over the pines. Of course we hadn’t brought our binoculars along on that trip so we weren’t sure if it was eagle.

The dead tree in the distance along with the green trees has a nest in the top. Click the photo to make it larger and then you will see in the tree that looks dead a sort of platform nest on the top of it. Eagles nests are huge when they are being used.

This time we went back with binoculars in hand to see if we could spot him again. We didn’t. We did see a nest in the distance. We did see an snowy egret or egretta thula, some Canadian Geese, and several varieties of ducks.

This is really a hard photo to see the snowy egret but he is the white dot in the brown tree in the middle of the photo…..click the photo to make it larger. They are normally down by the water but this one kept flying up into the trees.

Spawning salmon-click the photo to make it larger and you will see the beautiful color of the spawning Kokanee salmon

Thousands of salmon all trying to get upstream to spawn…so colorful.

The highlight of the day was watching the Kokanee salmon spawning in Taylor Creek. There were hundreds and hundreds of these brightly colored salmon, all making there way up the creek to spawn and die at the end of their life cycle.

There was nothing in the Handbook of Nature Study about eagles…not a common bird for most. I will look further into the bird section of the book in the spring when we are focusing on birds.

Tag: Eagles