Fun Nest Facts

by Claudia Kershcer

Liberty Wildlife Volunteer

Not just a pile of sticks, nests are truly a marvel of nature. Nests can be as big and heavy as a car, like an old eagle’s nest, while some can be tiny as a walnut like the nest of a hummingbird.

Bald Eagles Build Strong Nests and use them year after year. They make improvements and add to the nest, it can weight over a ton! Nests have been found to be 10-15 feet deep and estimated to weigh 2 tons!

Many birds “glue” their nests together with materials like spider webs (to give the nest stretch for expansion as the nestlings grow), silk, mud, lichen (for camouflage) and even their own saliva. A swallow’s mud nest can take up to 1200 trips to build.

Many birds use aromatic plants such as lavender, mint, evergreens, eucalyptus, and grasses to line their nests. They will refresh these plants throughout nesting. It is thought the plants help fight off bacteria living in the nest debris. Some birds have been seen to use cigarette butts in their nests. Possibly the nicotine helps to deter parasites.

Most cup nesters use rough, scratchy material for the outside (this gives protection and camouflages the nest), and put soft materials like moss, fur, feathers, and cotton on the inside. Tufted Titmice often line their nest with animal hair. They have been known to pluck those hairs from live animals.

Not all birds build nests. Cowbirds lay their eggs in other birds’ nests and the hatchlings are raised by the host parents.

Some birds will use abandoned homes from other animals. Burrowing owls are known to use prairie dog burrows to raise young. Burrowing owls will also use man-made burrows.

Great-horned owls reuse nests built by other species and don’t make any improvements. Small owls use old woodpecker nest holes in saguaro cactus.

Many cavity-nesting birds like wood duck will use nest boxes.

Nest sites can be used repeatedly, often building right on top of the old nest. An active Gyrfalcon cliff nest was radiocarbon dated to be around 2500 years old.

Nests come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some birds even nest communally.

Often multiple nests are built by the male. The female will then choose what she feels is the best nest. The verdin builds nests for both breeding and roosting. The roosting nests help it stay warm in winter. Abandoned roosting nests are often used by other birds in the winter for warmth.

For protection from predators, many desert-dwelling birds build in a cholla cactus, palo verde, or other desert vegetation where the nest is surrounded by thorns.

A few water birds (like grebes and loons) build platform nests right on the water, where they can float. The nests are anchored to plants that are attached to the bottom of the body of water. These birds build nests on water because they don’t walk well on land, so they can swim to their nests.

Shorebirds align the pointed ends of their eggs toward the center to pack the eggs into the tightest space for incubation.

Cliff nesters such as Peregrines and some seabirds have an oblong shape of the egg which allows it to spin in a circle, making it less likely to roll off the ledge.

In some species of birds, the nestling waste products are discharged in a mucous membrane called a fecal sac, generally white or clear with a dark end. The parents keep the nest clean by removing these far away from the nest.

Screech owls bring live blind snakes to their nestlings. Some of the snakes are eaten, but most live in nest debris, where they eat soft-bodied insect larvae from the decomposing nest debris.

Nests can be built in (what seems to us) the oddest places.

Baby birds have brightly colored beaks and mouths that show the parent where to put the food.

Resources: kids.kiddle.co; birdsandblooms.com; Tucson.com; mentalfloss.com; Wikipedia

---

---