Field Trips

This field trip is designed for middle school students. It's main focus is shore bird, and water bird identification. The area is fairly big with quite a few different habitats that you will find a wide variety of birds in. It is a good idea to take along some binoculars or a spotting scope beacuse the birds can be far away. You can incorporate many different lessons into the trip. You can look at adaptations for swimming, diving, basically life on the water. The trip is also a great opportuniy to look at seasonal plumage as well as the differnt plumage on males and females.

Malibu Lagoon Birding Field Trip
Author(s): Craig Didden		Field Trip - Teacher's Guide SED 695B; Fall 2005
http://www.parks.ca.gov/lat_long_map/default.asp?lvl_id=259

Topics addressed	This field trip is designed for middle school students. It's main focus is shore bird, and water bird identification. The area is fairly big with quite a few different habitats that you will find a wide variety of birds in. It is a good idea to take along some binoculars or a spotting scope beacuse the birds can be far away. You can incorporate many different lessons into the trip. You can look at adaptations for swimming, diving, basically life on the water. The trip is also a great opportuniy to look at seasonal plumage as well as the differnt plumage on males and females.


Study Guide: Bird Count Data Sheet Bird species list
Questions: 1. What are three differences between water birds and land birds? 2. What are three adaptations that water birds have to help them survuve? 3. What are three unique characteristics to birds? 4. What is the main diet of most seairds? 5. What do birds have on their feathers to help them float? 6. Name 4 birds that you saw?
Species list for points of interest			This is an areal view of the lagoon. I have designated points of interest with letters. The letters represent the best place to see specific species of birds. Species List for points of Interest
			This picture shows the variety of length, size, and shapes of shorebirds bills. See if you can guess what a species of bird eats based on the shape of its bill.
Place additional photos here			Description / questions
Place additional photos here			Description / questions

References & Links: Malibu Lagoon SB http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=835 Shore Bird ID http://www.wildbirdphotos.com/California2005/cashorebirds.htm Cornell Lab of Ornithology http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ Related Stories http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0914_090414_birdman_malibu.html Good Pictures of Shorebirds http://www.birdingamerica.com/Digiscoped/californiagallery.htm http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0914_090414_birdman_malibu.html

Malibu Lagoon Birding Field Trip