Bird
Nest Notes:
Do you remember as a child how exciting it was to find a bird’s nest, in a tree or on
the ground? Better yet to find a blue speckled egg or part of one. And if you were really
lucky you saw baby birds in the nest with their mouths wide open. Nesting time is so fun isn’t it?
I love to see the robins hopping around the yard with their beaks full of dead grass, looking like they’ve grown
whiskers, or the sparrow flying up to the trees with a ribbon of field grass streaming far behind her like a bride’s
train. Every bird’s nest is unique to the individual and to the species.
The
smallest nest is built by the hummingbird which is thimble size and made of moss and cobwebs. The Golden
Eagle claims the largest nest because it builds a new nest on top of the old with nests eventually containing more than a
ton of material. Thankfully they build on rocky crags and not in trees! Some birds do
not build nests but lay their eggs directly on the ground or on a tree stump.
Materials for the structures include sticks, twigs, leaves,
grasses, and mud. Some penguins build their nests of stones. Birds use moss, feathers, mud, dung, rotten
wood, paper and dryer lint for linings. I have seen a nest with Christmas tinsel!
Nest building can take
anywhere from one day up to 3 weeks to complete.
This spring I had the opportunity to watch something I’d never observed before;
a pair of Cooper’s Hawks were building a nest across the street high in a stand of trees. (Mind you I live in the city.)
Apparently they build their nests primarily out of sticks. To gather the sticks they hop, hop, flutter,
hop, flutter, hop far out to the end of a branch until it cannot hold the bird’s weight and breaks off into their talons,
and off they fly to the nest. I have never seen anything like it and it took me quite a while to figure
out what was going on. I have not seen the hawks collecting sticks from the ground even though there are
plenty. I suppose a green branch is stronger than a dead branch.
Xcel Energy has a wonderful
bird cam project. They have built nest boxes on top of some of their energy plant structures and
included hidden cameras to watch the nesting process. As of today there were already eaglets in the bald
eagle's nest and chicks in the kestrel’s nest. There are also cameras on nesting boxes for an
owl, falcon and osprey. Check it out at http://birdcam.xcelenergy.com/
Nest
building time is the quiet before the storm. Soon the yard will be filled with the noise and activity of
babies and busy parents.
