January 5 – Bird Day

Happy Bird Day!

The Message of the Birds written by Kate Westerlund and illustrated by Feridun Oral (2013)

Owl tells the Christmas story of the baby born in the manger and the birds who sang him songs of blessings, joy, and good will. The birds listening to owl wonder why they don’t sing those songs anymore, and Owl explains that  people don’t listen. Then the robin suggests they sing to the children, children listen with open ears and open hearts. The children will understand the message. So they all agreed to spread the word and  sing softly to every child. And then one night, a beautiful star shone down on the people. The children of the world held hands and followed the light and the song. Peace on Earth!

Grumpy Bird written and illustrated by Jeremy Tankard (2007)

Bird woke up grumpy. He was too grumpy to eat, play, or even fly. So Bird decided to walk. As he passed each of the other animals, they asked the same question, ‘what are you doing?’. And Bird was so grumpy, he answered each one rudely or sarcastically. The other animals didn’t seem to care, and each one followed Bird on his walk. Eventually, Bird was walking along with Sheep, Rabbit, Raccoon, Beaver, and Fox. Suddenly he stopped. All the other animals stopped too. He stood on one leg. All the other animals stood on one leg too. He jumped. All the other animals jumped too. And Bird realized he was having fun. So he invited everyone to fly home with him for a snack. And they did!

There is a Bird on Your Head! written and illustrated by Mo Willems (2007)

Piggie informs Elephant that a  small bird has landed on his head. He screams and scares it away. But when he settles down again, two birds land on his head. They are love birds and they are building a nest on his head. Now there are three eggs in the nest on his head and they’re hatching. Elephant has two love birds, a nest, and three baby checks on his head. He doesn’t know how to get rid of them and Piggie suggests he ask them to leave. So Elephant asks politely that they leave. They do. The two love birds carry their nest and their three baby birds onto Piggie’s head!

The Baby BeeBee Bird written by Diane Redfield Massie and illustrated by Steven Kellogg (2003)

All the animals at the zoo are tired. But when they’re ready for sleep, the baby bee bee bird is wide awake. His song is keeping everybody up. ‘Quiet!’ they roar and growl and shout. But all night long the baby bee bee bird sings, ‘beebeebobbibobbibeebeebobbbibobbibeebeebop’. In the morning, the zookeeper notices that none of the animals is up and assumes they are all sick. And just as the baby bee bee bird settles down for his nap, the other animals roared and trumpeted, and bellowed, and sang. ‘Quiet!’ said the baby bee bee bird, but all the other animals shouted louder and louder all day long, and the zookeeper worried that something was terribly wrong with them. That night, everyone was exhausted from making all that noise and all the animals slept soundly, even the baby bee bee bird.