Do Birds Care What Color Their Food Is?
Would you want to drink green milk, how about orange mashed potatoes? The color of foods might affect just how much you want to eat them, but what about the birds in your neighborhood, would they care what color their food is? This sounds like an experiment in the making…. you coul even try this out for a science fair project, or just to learn something new while making your locals birds happy.
You will need:
- Several bird feeders that are the same size and type
- Light colored birdseed appropriate for the birds in your neighborhood
- Several colors of food coloring
QUESTION - What color of birdseed, if any, will birds prefer the most?
RESEARCH: Ornithologists (scientists that study birds) are rather certain that most birds can see in color. One reason they think this is because birds themselves are very colorful. In many species, male birds tend to be more colorful than females. This is likely because the males use their coloring to attract a mate, while female birds tend to have less coloring to provide camouflage as they protect their eggs in the nest. Before beginning a large experiment with lots of bird seed, you may want to put out a few small handfuls of different colored birdseed (see instructions for coloring birdseed below) to see how the birds near you react to different colored seed. You may also want to refer to books and talk to an ornithologist to get their opinion about how birds see the word.
MAKE A HYPOTHESIS: Use the information that you’ve gained from your research and make a hypothesis based on your question. An example might be “Birds will eat more green birdseed than other colors.”
EXPERIMENT: This is the fun part. You should get several bird feeders that are all the same size and type. Purchase a bird seed that is very light in color for this experiment. To color the bird seed, pour it into a bowl and then add food coloring that you can purchase from the store. Mix it up well with a spoon and continue to add color until all the seed is colored. You should sample at least a few colors and have one feeder with seed that has not been colored - this is called the control and it will give you something to compare your results to. Now just hang them up outside in the same location, and wait for your feathered friends to show up. This works best in an area that birds are used to feeding from a feeder – it can take birds over a week to find new feeders.
COLLECT DATA: Observe your bird feeder whenever possible, and keep track of how much seed is in each bird feeder each day. A ruler is helpful for this. You might also want to take pictures of the feeders and keep track of which kind of birds visit each feeder. Over time, you should be able to see if one color of seed gets eaten more than others.
MAKE A CONCLUSION: Once your experiment is done, you will be able to go back to your hypothesis and see if it is correct. Remember,it’s not bad if your hypothesis was wrong. The main thing is that you’ve learned something from your experiment, and hopefully you had some fun doing it.
If you try this, let me know how it goes!
If you need inexpensive bird feeders, you can get some on-line HERE.
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We are doing this as my fourth graders science experiment!! As an avid birdwatcher I am just as into this project as he is (if not more)!! Cannot wait for the week to end to see what the birds do!
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wow this is an amazing project
I’m doing this for my college bio lab, i was disheartened to read about the fourth grader….weak right?
a m a z i n g !
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Does anyone think I could do this with my pet birds. I have one parakeet and one lovebird. Would I get fair information? How could I do it?
Please help (its for a science fair)
Dis is da best project dat I have eva in my life seen n sounds cool.
this is so0o cool it gives u all the kinds of ideas and how to do it for u can get a A+ on the sciences fair!
This prodect is very good I will use tis at taurage int school I hope that I will get a good score as I have never got a good score before
I just have to say that this is really good at our school we are having a science fair and i picked this topic it is really good
love it.!.
Dear Siencebob, Ithink im going to use this one for the sience fair because i have to do one and that sounds interresting. Thank you for inventing sciencbob!!!!!! If you had not i would not know enytking about what to do Sincerly, Abbeyisrad
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this is soooo cool…..! im probably gonna use this as my 6th grade science project! should i?
WOW!!!!! this is preety cool…..im gonna try this;}
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the birds folow the color?o wow….i might try this lol but it dosent seem that it will work…..
…..this is cool lol…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!im gonna try this..thism is very int5ersing;}hehe thanks 4 tha advice???….!!!
does it work?
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we r bffs in the science fair this year it must be experiment we r sisters and loved this and r going to try it wish us good luck!!!!!!!! we think it would be cool to try out!! please wish us luck!!!!! and we love your experiment we have a science fair in school and we picked this one and it is at the end of january we cant wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is cool information thankss!
I did this for science fair and i won third place !!!!!!!!! If you do this project i guarantee you will win either first, second , or third .
Sincerely, abbeyisrad
THIS IS A VERY FUN AND INTERESTING !!!! THE BIRDS LIKE [THE COLOR RED BETTER THAN OTHERS.
i love science and i hope one day i can teach science
what of seeds to get ps just a vister
awesome I like it.I just need some more ideas with full information
I am doing this as my science fair for biology as a a freshmen and it is awesome.
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this can help people learn things.
I did the experiment for five weeks, weighed the bird feeders every week, and refilled the bird feeders if necessary. Here are my results:
Total percent eaten Total weight eaten
Plain 82% 6lbs 4.5oz
Green 76% 5lbs 10.5oz
Red 68% 5lbs 5oz
Yellow 72% 5lbs 9oz
Blue 77% 6lbs 1oz
THIZ IZ THE BEST PROJECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow! Sciencebob has done it again!!!! I love this project
Who knew science was that fasinating?i didnt.But now its the best:)
I hope this gets me at least to the finals !!!!!!!
I LOOOOOVE THIS TOPIC
i did this one last year and it was fun and interesting!!!! i used red seed blue green yellow and regular….they liked red the best
My son is try the science experiment{Does the color of birdseed affect how much birds will eat it}