Come celebrate World Migratory Bird Day at the Linda Hall Library. You can eat like a bird, look at over a dozen examples of real bird beaks, and think about how human diets might change in the coming decades.
What’s in a beak?
A lot, it turns out!
Come celebrate World Migratory Bird Day at the Linda Hall Library. You can eat like a bird, look at over a dozen examples of real bird beaks, and think about how human diets might change in the coming decades.
Our hands-on activity demonstrates how bird beaks adapted to different foods sources and environments. Participants will learn about how bird species beak shapes affect their ability to gather food using our mock beaks. Can you fill your bird stomach with food using all the different beak styles?
Simulations are fun, but what about the genuine article? Visitors will complete a scavenger hunt to identify real bird-beaks and their functions. Search through dozens of avian study skins in our exhibition, Chained to the Sky. The examples come to us thanks to a loan from our friends at the Field Museum in Chicago, and include several specials of extinct birds.
As our climate changes, will humans ever have to eat like birds? We’ll have several examples of food-safe insects and insect-based food products on display, information about how and where people already consume insects, and why advocates think that bird diets are coming to table near you.
But wait, who’s actually eating bugs? Complete your scavenger hunt and you can add a scoop of real, human-food grade dried insects to a special bird-style lunch for Linda Hall Library staffer Matt Reeves. At 12:45 pm, he’ll eat the insects. . . with his fingers, instead of a beak.
This program is part of Remake Learning Days Kansas City, a multi-day, multi-location festival of innovative learning, featuring fun and free events for youth of all ages.
