Bird word search

Backyard regulars like the robin, sparrow, cardinal and blue jay meet birds from far away: the toucan and macaw of the rainforest, the penguin and puffin of cold seas and the ostrich and emu of open grassland. A handful of words describe birds themselves: feather, wing, beak, talon and nest.

Birds are the only living animals with feathers. The ostrich is the largest living bird and lays the largest egg of any bird alive today, yet it cannot fly, and neither can the emu, the kiwi or the penguin. At the other end of the scale, the hummingbird beats its wings so fast that it can hover in place and even fly backward.

If you keep a bird feeder, the puzzle makes a nice companion: after finding the words, check which of them visit your yard. In class, the list works for a short research task, with each student picking one bird and finding out what it eats and where it nests.

Play tip: several bird names are compound words, like WOODPECKER, MOCKINGBIRD, KINGFISHER and ROADRUNNER. Their halves are ordinary words, so if WOOD or ROAD jumps out at you from the grid, check whether the rest of the bird follows.