Birds Nests in the Most Bizarre Places
Fri, May 29, 2009
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Image: Mike Harefield via The Telegraph
Few doubt the brilliance of bird nest design, but it seems our feathered friends are just as ingenious when it comes to picking locations for their future homes. They need to be, when you consider the rate at which we’re gobbling up space on our planet. Yet looking at some of the bizarre spots birds mark out as prime real estate, anyone would think this business tells you something about each bird’s taste and character.
Don’t get any peace
Image: barnoid
This collared dove isn’t going to be getting any peace and quiet nested in amongst the nuts and bolts fixings of some traffic lights at a very busy junction.
Bright lights big city
Image via: virginmedia
This thrush and its young family have gone a step further by nesting inside the traffic light itself in Leeds city centre, seemingly oblivious to the constant traffic.
Light and airy
Image: Pascual De Ruvo
How a bird’s nest complete with chirping chicks came to be in a kitchen lamp inside a house is anyone’s guess. The human residents must have been away on vacation for quite a long time.
Just hanging out
Image via The Telegraph
The RSPB has warned people to be aware of the more unusual places in their homes that birds might use for nesting and rearing their young. Hanging baskets are a particular favourite of wrens.
Handyman about the house
Image: Mike Harefield via The Telegraph
Other garden birds opt for even more obscure nooks and crannies – like this robin, found nesting in a tool tidy. Perhaps it fancies itself as a bit of a DIY expert.
Check out my wheels
Image via: Arbroath
These nesting blackbirds were found in the wheel arch of a 4×4 police patrol car. In accordance with conservation laws, the young birds had to be left alone until they had flown the coup.
That’s just grate
Image: Benjamin J
Blackbirds have also been found nesting in other unusual garden locations like the mouths of wall-mounted lions’ heads. This one has plumped for an elevated grate.
Sculptural style
Image: Jim McCausland in Sunset Magazine
Snapped in San Diego, these hummingbirds have built their nest on top of some wind chimes right outside the front door of a house in its garden courtyard. Stylish.
Ready to make a fast exit
Image via The Telegraph
It’s a sign of the times that objects like these are used by our feathered friends as bases on which to build their nests.
Staying connected
Image: Piotrus
It’s actually not uncommon for storks to construct their stick nests close to human habitation and on man-made objects, and because they are seen as birds of good luck, they tend not to be persecuted.
Easy to contact
Image: Sara & Joachim
Weaver birds create the most elaborately woven nests of any birds, and when trees are scarce as they are in desert regions, telephone poles make equally good alternatives.
Morbid fascination
Image: informatique
Whatever bird decided to place its nest here must have a pretty grave sense of humour.
Prickly temperament
Image: Adventurous Wench
OK, so maybe a spiny cactus isn’t that unusual a location for a bird’s nest, but the avian ones inhabiting this particular homestead in Arizona had still best watch where they flap their wings.
That’s just rubbish
Image: Phil Holden
Here it’s not so much the location of the nest as what it’s made out of. Found in an Amsterdam canal, this mother bird has clearly adapted to the ridiculous amounts of waste we so wantonly dispose of.
Om nom nom nom nom nom nom
Image: stu spivack
This final pic is perhaps the most bizarre place of all for a bird’s nest to end up. Bird’s nest soup or “yan wo” is a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. Cave swifts are known for building the saliva nests used to make the unique texture of this soup. The nests are among the most expensive animal products consumed by humans, and are believed to be not only highly nutritious but to have a range of other benefits. Obviously not for the birds.
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1 Trackbacks For This Post
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Nidos de pájaros en lugares extraños Says:
May 30th, 2009 at 5:55 pm[...] Nidos de pájaros en lugares extraños www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/birds-nests-most-biza… por giles hace pocos segundos [...]
May 29th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
awww so cute. I just found a bird’s nest on the roof of my house and I’ve had to force my cat to go inside. I really don’t want my cat to hurt those little critters.