Last week we provided some gift ideas for the birder on your list. These were geared to adult birders. A recent Facebook post asked for gift ideas for a 6 year-old that was very into birds. Responses (not SIB members) were interesting.
A field guide!
While a 6 year-old may not be able to read, the pictures can help them learn to identify birds. Some of the standard guides by Audubon and Sibley were suggested, but multiple people recommended Birds of the Carolinas. Even if the recipient can’t read, as Amazon says: With Stan Tekiela’s famous field guide, bird identification is simple and informative. There’s no need to look through dozens of photos of birds that don’t live in your area. This book features 146 species of North and South Carolina birds organized by color for ease of use. Do you see a yellow bird and don’t know what it is? Go to the yellow section to find out.
Repurpose an obsolete smart phone!
What child doesn’t like to have a phone like their parents’? If you have upgraded to a new model, you can still load apps to the unused model. No cellular connection is required. You could still load Merlin and other apps on the phone for the child to use to identify birds they see and hear. Someone suggested you may want to replace the battery to provide longer usage for the new recipient.
Games are always fun!
The Facebook comments suggested a game I had never heard about. Match a Pair of Birds has the player Match the male and female pairs of 25 species of birds from around the world in this beautifully illustrated memory game. To play, simply place the cards face down and see if you can remember where the matching bird is located. Collect more pairs than your opponent to win! With all kinds of species – from the Barn Owl to the Blue Tit and the Ostrich to the Macaw – this fun and educational game is an ideal gift that will appeal to bird lovers everywhere. If the idea appeals to you and you are creative, you could create a similar game with only birds from your area.
Not mentioned in the Facebook comments, but recommended to me on recent SIB bird walks, was Sibley Backyard Birding Bingo. This colorful and informative bingo game features 50 quintessential North American birds painted by preeminent birding authority David Sibley. One recent attendee said this was her 6 year-old’s favorite game.
When looking for information about this game, I also found Sibley Backyard Birding Flashcards: 100 Common Birds of Eastern and Western North America (Sibley Birds). Divided into one stack of 50 common Western and Eastern North American birds, and one stack of 50 common birds found across North America, each card features precise illustrations and text concerning habitat, behavior, and voice description necessary for easy identification. Edited with the backyard birder in mind, each bird card is accompanied with a regional map as an additional guide to migratory patterns.
Binoculars!
This final idea may be so obvious that it hasn’t been considered. You probably don’t want to invest significant funds in quality binoculars to be tossed around by a young child. A search found several “high resolution, shock proof” binoculars available for a child to start learning to use this tool to assist in their bird identification.
Hope this gives you some ideas for gift ideas for your young birder.