Main characteristics of birds for children

Birds are a type of vertebrate animal that reproduces through eggs. One of the most common characteristics is that, regardless of whether they fly or not, all birds have wings on their front limbs. This is one of the main and most important characteristics since, although they can move by jumping or swimming, their main means of locomotion is flight . In fact, its entire body is designed for this function, even in the case of birds that do not fly (such as chickens, ostriches, or penguins among others). In addition to the wings, another of the main characteristics of birds and that is associated with flight is the structure of their skeleton, formed by almost hollow bones. and very light that allow them to weigh very little and have greater ease when taking flight.

Another characteristic of birds is that they have a beak instead of a mouth, which serves both to eat and to perform all the functions associated with the mouth in the case of other animals. Their bodies are covered with feathers , which allows them to protect themselves from humidity and cold and, in addition, facilitates and allows flight more effectively. Birds are quite sociable animals in most cases. In fact, these are animals that tend to create nests close to each other with other individuals of other species, take care of their young and, in some cases, come to mate with the same reproductive individual continuously.

Other characteristics of birds that may be curious to children, and that will help them understand them, are that many of them are migrating animals and many of them sleep standing up .

One of the most striking characteristics of birds is the wide variety of food patterns that they follow. In fact, one of the factors that has directly influenced their success as animals is the ability to adapt to most environments and settings.

In this way, we can find birds that feed on seeds and fruit , others that do so from insects , others that do so from meat of small rodents or other birds and, birds that feed on fish and small crustaceans , and we can even find birds that have great adaptability and that can go from one diet to another depending on the environmental conditions in which they are found.

In this way, the feeding of the birds is one of the factors, together with the flight capacity, that has most influenced their success to be so widespread throughout the world, since it has allowed them to adapt to any environment and take advantage of the available food resources. This is one of the reasons why they can currently be found in any terrestrial territory on the planet, including coastal areas and even on the Antarctic continent.

One of the advantages that birds have when you have small children and you want to explain things about these animals is, without a doubt, that they are very easy to see in the wild . In fact, they can even be observed in the urban centers of large cities, where sparrows, pigeons, magpies and swallows are the most common of all. However, if you want to see larger birds, there are two places that are especially good when it comes to wanting to go out with an ornithological motivation.

On the one hand, the marshes are places where the variety of birds that can be observed is very high. In this sense, the Iberian Peninsula stands out for having a great variety of wetlands that are home to a multitude of birds and where, if you go at the right time of year, you can observe these birds in their natural environment without the presence of the being human alters its development and vital activity. Some of these wetlands could be the Parque de Doñana , or the Lagunas de Ruidera among many others.

On the other hand, in the case of wanting to observe birds of prey , the best option is to go to some natural parks located in mountainous areas, which are the preferred places for these birds to nest. Some examples that can be found in the Iberian Peninsula would be the numerous natural parks of the Pyrenees or the Picos de Europa , located between the provinces of Asturias and León.

We recommend that you also read these other articles that will help you give more information about birds to children, as they talk about The importance of birds in the environment and about Birds in danger of extinction .