Beyond The Nest – Super Sparrow Squad

Event Year: 2022
Event Location: Virtual
Competition: Critter Comfort Cottage
Division: 3-5
School: Bay Meadows Elementary
Team Size: 6

Bay Meadows Elementary

Anushka.S (5th) , Gagana.S (4th) , Anwesha.B (5th) , Gauri.B (5th) , Sudhiksha.PM (5th) , Iris.D (5th)

About Us

Anushka  – Studying in 5th grade, Bay Meadows Elementary School

Anwesha- Studying in 5th grade, Bay Meadows Elementary School

Gagana – Studying in 4th grade, Bay Meadows Elementary School

Gauri – Studying in 5th grade, Bay Meadows Elementary School

Iris – Studying in 5th grade, Bay Meadows Elementary School

Sudhiksha – Studying in 5th grade, Bay Meadows Elementary School

Our Animal Choice- Sparrow

The House Sparrow is an extremely widespread little bird. They live in several regions like North, Central, and South America, Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. They often live in cities, parks, suburbs, farms, and other urban areas. 

Habitat: They live in forests, meadows, grasslands, deserts, desert edges, woodlands, and the vast majority of their population lives in urban areas.
Interesting Fact: Sparrows bite holes in the bottom of the flower to eat nectar.

Our Team Work

    We are the super sparrow squad, we work hard to build a safe heaven for our choice of bird, we selected sparrow as our bird.

S – Shelter

P – Protection

A – Aesthetic

R – Realistic

R – Resourceful

O – Organic

W – Wonderful

Purpose

Sparrows are closely habitant with humans and need an essential touch. They are disappearing because of lack of green space, destruction of nesting sites, rising of concrete towers, cell phone radiation, absence of native plants, pesticide in farms and pollution, and more. The purpose of this project  is to make a shelter and give comfort that contains the needs of the sparrows life and without harming the environment.

What we can do

• Have an arrangement of seeds which can be available to the sparrows or any birds
• Put a bowl of water in your backyard 
• Hang a birdhouse full of grains on a tree
• Reduce global warming
• Reduce the usage of a cell phone 
• Plant more trees
• Use pesticides only when necessary

Materials Used

• Real tree branches

• Plaster of Paris

• Water

• Hot glue

• Yarn 

• Old cloths

• Paint

• Bird Houses

• Egg Carton, used as a bird feeder

• Bird Seeds

• Bin

• Paper

• Scotch brite to make leaves

• Sponge

• Paint Brush and Sponge Brush

• Bird House

• Bracelets

• Wooden Spoons

• Popsicle Sticks

• Coca Cola Can

• Bottle Cap 

We first built a tree and bird house where sparrows would be comfortable to live collecting sticks and branches from neighborhoods.

1. How we Constructed The Tree

• We collected some sticks
• We wrapped the sticks in yarn to secure them in place
• We created a solution of Plaster of Paris and School Glue
• We dipped old ripped cloth in the solution and wrapped it around the sticks to create the trunk
• We decorated the trunk with paint

2. Pond with Water Wheel: We have created a self sufficient environment for birds by adding a pond with a water wheel to circulate the water in the pond. Our intention is to create a water circulation cycle which forms a natural habitat for birds, when it rains, water will pours as streams down the hills through our pond, our pond will collect the water and water wheel will help circulate the water, this will keep the area around the bird shelter green with lot of natural growing grass and plants and it will attract bugs for birds to eat. Also humans can provide food in the bird feeder so this will help birds have enough food and water.

We have added greenery and grass to create the effect of the natural environment. The grass also collects water which attracts bugs. If bugs are in the shelter the birds will still hunt every once in a while, which will not make them completely dependent on people and the bird feeders.

Our Finished Natural Habitat