Robin, Cardinal, and House Finch !!

We have plenty of robins, cardinals, and house finches, so this should be a pretty easy study (in the sense of being able to do what Barbara presented). In fact, we just observed 2 robins for about 20 minutes. We focused on the beak, making use of our Peterson Field Guide (Eastern Birds). On an aside, we have enjoyed learning how to use this field guide. We have quite a few bird field guides, but have not used this one. To follow that rabbit trail further, we have a great first type field guide called Common Birds of Birmingham, which has 61 bird species found in most backyards of Alabama and it has large phenomenal photographs, and my twin 3 year olds love to pore over it! Also, a friend of ours from church edited the DK Kids' Field Guides Birds of North America, so we use that one a good bit, too. My husband uses the Audobon Field Guide because he is the most familiar with it.
OK, back to the study... we had just finished noticing so many things about the robin, and enjoyed Josh's visual description of the run with an occassional hop, all bent over, movement of the robin. We all saw the yellow beak, and the boys agreed that it was shape-wise between the #1 and #3 bill shapes on pg. 24 of our Peterson guide. They decided, after much deliberation, that it was a shorter version of #3. Josh also noticed the ring around the eye.
We drew pics of the bill in our nature journals, and while we were looking out the window to show a sibling who had just woken up, lo and behold, a female and male cardinal flew up and a house finch right next to it!! Wow- talk about the LORD's timing :)
They had just a minute to notice the bills, and decided that the cardinals was a fatter #2. The male's beak was a brighter red than the orangy-red of the female. Then, for the fleeting moment that the finch was there, they noticed that it had a #2 sparrow like bill. (and, by the way, 2 house sparrows joined the party, so lots of good comparisons!)
The boys also compared the movements of all 4 birds, no-5- because we saw a dove too!
The robin ran leaned over, with an occasional hop, the cardinal hopped, the finch hopped, the sparrow hopped, and the dove walked (strutted is more like it).
All in all, it was a great study, with a few great surprises!