Bird Watching

Today my girls were looking out of the window at the backyard, when they noticed a bird. It was blue and at first one was excitedly shouting that it was a blue bird. The other replied that they thought it might be a blue jay. As they got a better look they realized it was neither and that the bird was red/orange breasted.I had my older daughter"s science book next to me when my younger daughter came over to talk to me about the bird. She pointed at the cover and said, "That's the bird we saw!" I looked in the book and told her it was an Eastern Bluebird. My older daughter didn't agree with us which led to a google image search. The only bird that came up when we typed in the description was an Eastern Bluebird. Still my oldest didn't think that was it. She didn't think the bird had any white on the belly. She went outside hoping to get an even better look at the bird and came back inside to tell me how they sounded and what they looked like. Then she grabbed our Birds of North America field guide and looked it up. Sure enough, she found a picture of the Eastern Bluebird and said "That's the bird!" I couldn't help but laugh and her younger sister couldn't help but say, "We told you so!" Sadly my camera was not handy at the time and I didn't get a picture, but for anyone who might actually read this and want to know what one looks like, here is a picture of one.

I got this picture from a site with neat facts about them. Check it out at http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/New_York/bird_E_bluebird.html

The day was even more exciting for my husband, girls, and I when we saw some cranes or herons nearby. Our dogs started barking before I could get my camera. It was still pretty neat and made me realize that I really need to keep my camera more handy!