Create Your Own Nature Field Guide

A notebook or stack of blank paper

Colored pencils, markers, or watercolors for illustrations

A camera or phone for reference photos

Reference books or internet access for researching species

A stapler, hole punch and string, or folder for binding the finished guide

Start with a decision: what will your field guide cover? Birds of your neighborhood? Trees on your street? Wildflowers in the park? Insects in the garden? Pick something local and specific.

Go on multiple observation walks over several days. Document at least 8-10 species through photographs, sketches, and written notes. Where did you find it? What was it doing? What did it look like up close?

Research each species at home. Write the key identification features: size (how big compared to your hand?), color and markings, habitat (where does it live?), season (when do you see it?), and one genuinely interesting fact.

Create a page for each species. Include a detailed illustration or printed photo, the common and scientific name, habitat, and your identification notes. Draw arrows pointing to key features.

Organize the guide in a logical order. Alphabetical works. By habitat (forest, garden, water) works better. By color works for flowers.

Design a cover, write a table of contents, and bind the pages together. Your child just authored a real field guide — specific to your neighborhood, based on their own observations.

A field guide is a multi-session project. Don't try to finish it in one sitting. Spread it over a week or two, adding species as you encounter them.

Scientific illustration is about accuracy, not artistic talent. Draw what you actually see, not what you think a bird or leaf should look like. Label features with arrows.

If your child is interested, share it with a local nature center or library. Original field guides of local species are genuinely useful to communities.

This project naturally builds into a lifelong skill. Professional naturalists, biologists, and ecologists all maintain field journals. Your child is practicing their craft.