• • BPIF Home
  • About Boreal PIF
  • Education
  • Monitoring/Research
  • Conservation
  • Events
  • PIF Meetings
  • Links
  • Landbirds Home

Beak Deformities Alert

ALMS

Educational Materials

Contents

Alaskan Coastal Resource Activity Guides
Alaska Landbird Bibliographic Database
Bird Checklists for Alaska
Bird Songs of Alaska Audio Guide
ParkWise Teacher Resources
Birds in Hand and Field
Alaska Wildlife and Aquatic Education Program
Environmental Education Outreach: "Migration Migraine"
A Guide to Bird Education Resources, Migratory Birds of the Americas
Migration Science and Mystery
Shorebird Sister Schools Program
Wildlife Radio Spot Scripts

Alaskan Coastal Resource Activity Guides

The Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies provides many resources and activity guides for teachers on its website (http://www.akcoastalstudies.org). These address endangered species, sea ducks, and other aspects of coastal ecology in Alaska.

Alaska Landbird Bibliographic Database

This is a searchable bibliography of all literature on the landbirds occurring in Alaska. Unpublished reports as well as published literature are included. The bibliography is updated on an annual or semi-annual basis.

Available through:
Steve Matsuoka
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Migratory Bird Management
1011 E. Tudor Rd., Anchorage, AK 99503
(907) 786-3673; steve_matsuoka@fws.gov

Bird Checklists for Alaska

Checklists on the occurrence and seasonal abundance of birds are available on this website (http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/othrdata/chekbird/bigtoc.htm#AK) for the state of Alaska as well as many of the regions, parks, refuges, and forests within the state.  Various checklists are also available for the rest of the United States.

Bird Songs of Alaska Audio Guide

Leonard Peyton's Bird Songs of Alaska is a two disc CD collection of vocalizations and sounds from more than 260 species of birds found in Alaska. This audio production, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's world-renowned Library of Natural Sounds, is the most comprehensive collection of bird sounds available for the state. This is a must for anyone wanting to improve their ability to identify Alaska birds by sound.

Because the CD features vocalizations not found on any other audio guide, researchers conducting studies in Alaska or other places where many of these birds are found, will find the guide indispensable.  "Serious birders anywhere in North America will find the shorebird vocalizations especially helpful, as the birds make key migratory stop-overs on their way from their Alaskan and high arctic breeding grounds to their winter areas in South America," says Greg Budney, curator of the Library of Natural Sounds.  Casual listeners will simply enjoy the voices of birds from Denali National Park, Tongass National Forest, the Aleutian Islands, and other faraway places where many of the recordings were made.

Birds Songs of Alaska is available through several commercial sources (search the internet).

ParkWise Teacher Resources

ParkWise (http://www.nps.gov/akso/ParkWise/Teachers/TeacherResources.htm) is a website hosted by the National Park Service in Alaska that provides many educational resources for teachers. These include "Fly Away," a web-based curriculum that uses satellite telemetry data to track migration of Golden Eagles from Denali National Park and Preserve, and "To Hatch or Not to Hatch?," which uses real data from Golden Eagle nests to understand how birds are affected by habitat and predators.

Birds in Hand and Field

This is a 16-page education manual of activities designed for youths K-7. It includes activities developed for use before, during, and after students visit to a banding station.  The manual includes information and activities on bird migration, collecting and examining banding data, and the purpose of banding birds.

Available through:
Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory
14500 Lark Bunting Lane
P.O. Box 1232, Brighton, CO 80603
(303)659-4348
http://www.rmbo.org/v2/web/Education/Material.aspx

Alaska Wildlife and Aquatic Education Program

The Alaska Wildlife and Aquatic Education Program of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (http://www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/statewide/aquaticed/teacherresource.cfm) provides many resources for teachers on birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, and habitats in Alaska.

Environmental Education Outreach: "Migration Migraine"

Project Wild's "Migration Headache" was adapted for all migratory birds that travel to Alaska, with special emphasis on neotropical migratory birds. This is an interactive game where students become different species of migrant birds (complete with a photo-identification tag) and face the rigors of weather, habitat loss, and pollution as they embark on fall and spring migrations. Prior to each migration, habitats are altered, destroyed, or enhanced to illustrate how natural and human caused factors can affect bird populations. Each student represents a population, using easy-to-manipulate numbers, so the total numbers of birds reaching nesting or wintering grounds can be recorded on a graph through several migration cycles. Geography, math, bird identification, and conservation biology are the main disciplines involved.

For more information contact:
Ruth Gronquist
Bureau of Land Management-Northern District
1150 University Ave., Fairbanks, AK 99709
(907)474-2377, (907)474-2282 (fax); 
rgronqui@ak.blm.gov

Migration Science and Mystery

This website (http://migration.pwnet.org/resource/archives.php) hosts several archived lesson plans on shorebirds, migration, and habitats in Alaska.

Songbird Blues

This teaching kit includes a large array of educational materials used for instructing students in grades K-6 about neotropical migration and the drastic declines of songbirds from habitat loss. It includes a teacher's guide, books, magazines, posters, student research kits, videos, cassette tapes, a felt storyboard, puppets, and scripts for dramatic skits.

To borrow this kit in Alaska, contact:
Alaska Resource Library and Information Service
3150 C Street, Suite 100
Anchorage, AK 99503-3916
Phone: (907)272-7547
Fax: (907)271-4742
http://www.arlis.org

Wildlife Radio Spot Scripts

This website (http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/ro/educators/) includes the text from radio pieces on Alaska birds.  The scripts were developed by biologists from throughout the state and are available for use in the development of new radio shows.

More Information

For more information on educational materials and opportunities, please contact our Information and Education Chair:

Susan Sharbaugh
Alaska Bird Observatory
P.O. Box 80505
Fairbanks, Alaska 99708
(907) 451-7159
birds@alaskabird.org

Note: This list is for your convenience. We are not advertising or endorsing any product or entity listed.