Home sweet home - for the birds that is..

Rooks, one of the most obvious nest builders, are already well under way with their building and you may have seen their large nests at the top of the bare trees by the roadsides. They will start by collecting sticks and dropping them on the branches they have chosen as their home.  To begin with, more often than not their twigs will drop through, but with time, they lodge in the branches of the tree and a rather unruly nest will begin to form.  Rooks are big birds and they can afford to nest where they can be seen, but most birds are much more secretive about it.

 The birds at Wicor have started to make their nests and you can see evidence of this all day as they go to and fro with small twigs, feathers and grasses in their beaks.  Look out for long-tailed tits who can use up to 2,000 feathers in each nest and in their effort to collect all the various materials, they will fly between 600-700 miles!  Birds only spend a small part of their year – often only a few days – building nests, and they instinctively build it to a design that is unique to their species.If you keep your eyes peeled throughout late March and April, you may be able to see evidence of this around you at home too. 

Still, with a bit of patience, you can spot signs of your garden birds nesting. Blackbirds, robins and song thrushes build nests in the ‘classic design’ – nice neat cups of woven grasses and small twigs, camouflaged with moss and lined with mud.  The birds will be quite careful about approaching their chosen nest site, and you may see them stopping to check they are not being watched before they plunge into a hedge or shrub. However, they can only be as subtle as a bird with grass and moss in its beak can be, so if you’re lucky enough to be looking out of your window at the right moment, you may see them collecting the material, or even notice where they are nesting.

But how do birds, with only beaks as tools, turn these basic components into nests secure enough to take a growing family of nestlings, vying for their parents’ attentions and stretching their wings?
It would seem that beaks are very good tools for building. It’s a delicate business, the weaving in of new material to create the nest cup. A blackbird will land on the base of the nest and lay the next strand of grass or twig on the top. She will then turn in the nest and carefully weave this new strand into the side of the cup.   It’s the turning action that leaves the inside of the nest completely smooth and well compacted, ready to take eggs and chicks. She’ll continue until the cup is complete and will then visit ponds or puddles and collect mud to use to strengthen the inside of the nest.

Click on the link to watch a blackbird making a nest:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ySgRlxjj2A