Favorite Living Picture Books About Birds
Because science is beautiful.
When it comes to teaching science to my six-year-old, I follow Joy Cherrick’s advice to pick a theme for the year. This year, it’s birds.
In addition to using Cherrick’s Nature Study Hacking book, which helped guide my daughter’s nature journal entries, and making liberal use of the Merlin bird identification app, I’ve been compiling my favorite picture books about birds. Some are poetic, some are more purely factual, but all of them employ beautiful language and even more beautiful illustrations.
Every Day Birds
by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
illustrated by Dylan Metrano
“Every day we watch for birds…”
She got this from her grandparents when she was only a year old, and it remains a favorite with its bright pictures and simple, evocative rhymes.
Hawk hunts every day for prey.
Cardinal catches fire.
Woodpecker taps hollow trees.
Crow rests on a wire.
There’s a reference section at the back with more facts about the birds.
The Beak Book
by Robin Page
This book demonstrates how a beak is a tool specifically engineered for what the bird eats, builds, sings, and fights.
Whose Egg Is That?
by Darrin Lunde
illustrated by Kelsey Oseid
A cute book for toddlers, this book shows how every egg is adapted to its species’ needs and helps match bird (and fish and reptile) eggs with their parents.
Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones: A Book About Animals That Lay Eggs
by Ruth Heller
This is another favorite we’ve had since she was a toddler. It’s a rhyming, illustrated overview of all the different kinds of eggs laid by birds, reptiles, amphibians, cephalopods, bugs, and dinosaurs.
Chickens aren’t the only ones.
There’s no more to discuss.
Everyone who lays an egg is
O-VIP-A-ROUS.
An Egg Is Quiet and A Nest Is Noisy
by Dianna Aston
illustrated by Sylvia Long
These books are part of a famous series. They’re probably the most beautifully illustrated of the ones I’ve mentioned, and the picture-book cadence, combined with inset facts about each animal, really makes for a great read-aloud.
Nests, Eggs, Birds: An Illustrated Aviary
by Kelsey Oseid
This. This is my top pick. It was the library book that begged to be purchased. We read two pages a day in our morning basket time. The topics range from the development of an egg, to the structure of a nest, to the way birds have featured in myth and history. It’s always engaging, and I always learn as much as my kids do.
Sibley Birds East
Written and illustrated by David Allen Sibley
The Sibley Bird guide is not a narrative, but my kids love looking at the pictures. My kindergartener knows how to use it to identify birds.
