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Requirements June 1972 until August 1982

1. Spend 3 hours in each of two different kinds of natural habitats at different elevations. List the different bird species you identified.  List the numbers of each seen.  Tell why all birds do not live in the same kind of habitat.

2. Spend 3 hours on each of 5 days on at least a 25-acre area, and make a list of bird species and numbers which you identified by sound or sight.

3. Recognize by sound 10 birds where you live.

4. List the bird families usually found where you live during a year.  Identify in the field on bird from eight of the following families:  Pigeons and Doves; Woodpeckers; Tyrant Flycatchers; Swallows; Crows, Magpies, and Jays; Titmice, Bushtits; Wrens; Thrashers and Mockingbirds; Thrushes Solaires, Bluebirds; Wood Warblers; Weaver Finches; Blackbirds, Orioles, Meadowlarks; Finches, Sparrows, Grosbeaks, and Crossbills.  Identify one bird from any other family.

5. Write a life history of 500 words on one bird other than a game bird that nests where you live.

6. Do ONE of the following:

(a) Keep accurate records of birds observed on at least eight field trips during one season (3 months).
(b) Watch a bird nest for an hour a day for 10 days.  Describe what you saw.
(c) Go on a Christmas census of at least 8 hours with a bird club.  List of birds observed.
(d) Go on a May big day of 8 hours with an expert.  List birds seen.
(e) Visit a bird refuge.  Describe its purpose.  Give the management techniques.
(f) Write a 500-word life history of a game bird that nests where you live.

7. Do ONE of the following:

(a) Build a backyard sanctuary of a tenth of an acre or more by planting trees and shrubs for food and cover.  Describe what birds you hope to attract and why.

(b) Build three bird feeders of different kinds.  Set them out.  Keep them stocked with food for 3 months in winter.  Describe what birds used them.  Tell what kinds of food were liked best.

(c) Build three nest boxes for different birds.  Set them out in good places.  Describe the birds that used them.  Tell how many young were raised in these boxes.

(d) Take 12 clear, sharp, recognizable pictures of 12 species of birds.

(e) Build a watering device for birds.  Keep it filled for 3 months.  Tell what kinds of birds used it.  Describe any interesting things you saw.

8. Do ONE of the following:

(a) Pick one species of bird that eats other animals.  Tell its place in nature.  Tell on what birds your state pays a bounty, if any.  Tell if this makes sense to you.

(b) Make a migration map (flyway map) of the United States.  Name some of the birds that use each flyway.  Tell where they nest.  Tell where they winter.  Describe birdbanding.

(c) Make a list of the extinct or declining birds of the United States.  Describe the chief causes of this.