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Dr-J

How long do birds live? How many offspring do they have?

Hi! Recently I was asked questions on birds. The answer got truncated by the program handling the answer. I decided to re-create the answer here, thus, this post.

I am very excited to get your question. One reason is that my nephew is very interested in birds and we often watch them and talk about them. My mother, too, likes birds. My parents have a bird feeder and also go bird-watching. They are in their eighties. I think the birds help keep them young!

I imagine that the number of times a bird reproduces depends on the type of bird (chicken or robin, for example)and on the particular bird (Just like you like one kind of ice cream and your friend likes another, different birds might reproduce different numbers of times based on preference. Similarly, numbers of offspring and longevity vary among bird families and bird individuals just like they do among human families and individuals. The oldest woman I know is 115 years old, for example. The life span is now 160 for people. Some people die before reaching that age, because of accident or disease. The same kind of thing happens to birds: some live longer than others, some have more offspring than others. But, there are other answers...
I think I can help you find some answers.

Here is a diagram of a "typical" bird life cycle. Click here.
http://www.bird-friends.com/Life.html

There is a bird expert (scruthird@zoonewengland.com, ask for the, "bird expert.") at the Franklin Park Zoo (www.zoonewengland.org) and you can see some of "Bird World" too.

The National Zoo offers bird facts where you can find lots of information. The bald eagle, for example can live 48 years in captivity at zoos (less in the wild). It has two or three eggs a year and typically mates in the spring, but may mate more often.

Teaching printables can be found at: http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Life_Cycles/

Another part of the answer addressed the fact that women and men can both be scientists and the student (a girl) asking the question was encouraged to go on in science.

There is a bird game already posted. I'll put a link here: Click!

Well, I haven't recreated the entire answer, but I repeated the work that was lost as well as I could recall it at present.

Edited on 10-20-09:
See comments below for more information. Here is a quote from one of them showing a sample of the kind of information you can find there on many birds:

SPECIES	YR.-MO	SPECIES	YR.-MO.
Laysan Albatross	37-05	White-crowned Sparrow	13-04
Arctic Tern	34-00	House Sparrow	13-04
Great Frigatebird	30-00	Warbling Vireo	13-01

Source for the information on the albatross, tern, and frigatebird shown above: http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/How_Long.html Accessed 10-20-09. Notes: Copyright ® 1988 by Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye,
from The Birder's Handbook (which covers birds of North America), note the date of the statistics (which are now 21 years old), the website data is limited to campus(Stanford) birds (in California) [Thanks to D. Wheye for these added clarifications in the above, "Notes."]

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Dell Computers provide great computing capabilities. Check out their new products.

Gravity Games...

http://games.download3000.com/play/gravity

See It to Believe It - Visual Discrimination

Here's a link to some interesting science experiments:
Neuroscience for K-12
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chvision.html

One of the experiments is on Visual Discrimination and suggests, among other things, comparing and contrasting flourescent lights and incandescent lights.

Turbidity?

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/turbid

Science standards:

Hydrology Lesson Plan/Turbidity

Chesapeake/Turbidity

6th grade and turbidity

Diamonds and science?

The Diamond Necklace is a story that brings to mind an important action we can take: Understanding invasive species.

While speaking of the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the founders (Together with his partner, Vaux) of landscape architecture designed an emerald necklace.

Read the story and find out about these jewels.