On a Wing and a Prayer
America's songbirds are disappearing. But why? This episode of the popular New Explorers documentary series traces the birds' migratory route from Central America, across the Gulf of Mexico, all the way to southern Illinois. By watching the video, you and your students can join a team of researchers and ornithologists on an investigative expedition to find out why these birds are returning from their winter homes in smaller numbers each year. You and your team of "New Explorers" can witness rare footage of "brood parasitism" in action, and discover for yourselves how America's zeal to clear land for agriculture has put our songbirds at risk.
In the classroom, introduce the program to your students by previewing the On a Wing and a Prayer video. If the one-hour video is too long to show in a single class session, break it up into approximately 30-minute sections. Each of the lesson introductions makes a reference to the tape for continued discussion with students. This encourages ongoing focus on the issues addressed in the video, like the miracle of migration or the drastic disappearance of our Neo-tropical songbirds. Repeated viewing of the video, or of specific parts of the video, is recommended.
Summary of Video
(approximate counter numbers, in minutes and seconds)
00 00 - Introduction: Imagine a silent forest
01 41 - New Explorers Intro
02 38 - Bill Kurtis introduces the migrating songbirds
04 34 - Feeding takes place before journey
05 11 - Scott Robinson, biologist, records location of birds
06 37 - Observance of a dramatic decline in songbirds
09 37 - Canadian geese migrate south to Illinois
10 10 - Landscape is being misused by road building and farming
10 57 - Robinson takes an annual survey of birds
13 25 - The mysteries of migration
18 39 - Traveling birders do bird calls
20 38 - Sydney Gauthreaux goes in a hot air balloon to observe birds
26 13 - Dave Willard from the Field Museum collects birds that do not survive migration flight
27 20 - The change in forest abundance
28 41 - Robinson continues his study along the Cache River
29 56 - Searching for bird nest
31 58 - Some evidence for declining songbirds
33 45 - "Brood parasitism" in action
35 38 - Recording of the number of thrushes and cowbirds in nest
37 40 - Jeff Hoover does detailed control study experiment
43 36 - Songbirds collecting caterpillars
48 04 - Evidence of the survival of cowbirds
51 33 - Taking Action: Boy Scouts collect acorns, Nature Conservancy replants acorns
54 36 - Save the birds and think of conservation: The end