Bird Nests in the Wild

If you've ever had the opportunity to watch birds building nests you'd know how alert and business-like they really are, even when absorbed in building their nests!

When on any country hike, if you happen upon a small clearing during Spring and sit quietly there for 20 minutes or so, you'll likely (and luckily) notice a set of birds building their nests, collecting moss from the top of a dead tree, picking up tiny branches on the forest floor.

And, if you follow them (be prepared for many stops and starts, you'll likely discover the nest in progress. Look for branched forks of limbs or dead trees with hollows. Of course this is entirely dependent on the birds you're following...

If you carry a birder's field guide with you on your hikes and can identify the bird, you'll also find a nesting section which will give some clues which type of habitat to watch out for.

While all this goes on around you (and it is a wonderous thing) try to be very careful not to disturb the pair of nest-builders or you could put them off their work and off their chosen site.

I once read this from a man who happened upon a pair of Cedar Waxwings while they were building their nests:

"Presently I hear the well-known note, and the female sweeps down and settles unsuspectingly into the half-finished structure. Hardly have her wings rested before her eye has penetrated my screen, and with a hurried movement of alarm she darts away. In a moment the male, with a tuft of wool in his beak (for there is a sheep pasture near), joins her, and the two reconnoitre the premises from the surrounding bushes. With their beaks still loaded, they move around with a frightened look, and refuse to approach the nest till I have moved off and lain down behind a log.

"Then one of them ventures to alight upon the nest, but, still suspecting all is not right, quickly darts away again. Then they both together come, and after much peeping and spying about, and apparently much anxious consultation, cautiously proceed to work. In less than half an hour it would seem that wool enough has been brought to supply the whole family, real and prospective, with socks, if needles and fingers could be found fine enough to knit it up. In less than a week the female has begun to deposit her eggs, four of them in as many days, white tinged with purple, with black spots on the larger end.

"After two weeks of incubation the young are out."

Now if that doesn't sound like a magical sight, a secret viewing of the world of the bird, I don't know what else might move you.

American Goldfinch Nests

John Burrows writes further about a similar experience watching an American goldfinch pair. The American Goldfinch builds later in the season (in our neck of the woods) as well, sometime in mid-summer. 

Woodpecker Nesting Habits

And later on he gives a full account of a woodland walk where he heard a dull hammering sound, that seemed to be quite a distance off. He thought that surely someone new was building a house, and past experience told him that the nest builder was likely a red-headed woodpecker in the top of a nearby dead oak. Upon closer inspection he did discover a hole, rather round, about 1 1/2" in size, and at the base of the dead oak, some white chips of wood. Sure enough the bird inside heard his approach and stopped working away to peer out and see who was nearby. John was careful to remain perfectly still, not breathing, winking or smiling, but the bird flew off to a neighboring tree and work was interrupted.

That's the weird part.

Imagine you were in a hollow oak tree, hammering away with the echoes and noises you made in there would you be able to hear the footsteps of a careful observer? I think how often I am completely wrapped up in my own work that sometimes I don't even hear the phone ringing beside me.

So it is with woodpeckers - for all the noise they make - they also hear every sound around them.

They all build their nests in much the same manner, removing the inner workings of dead trees, then depositing the eggs on the fine fragments of wood at the bottom of the cavity. The eggs are completely protected from all the elements and most predators such as jays, hawks, and owls. A tree with a natural cavity is never selected, but one which has been dead just long enough to have become soft and brittle throughout. The woodpecker pecks away horizontally for a few inches, making a hole perfectly round and smooth (precisely the size he requires), then works away at chipping downwards. Enlarging the hole, as he proceeds to the softness of the tree and the urgency of the mother bird to deposit her eggs.

While they prepare their nest, the woodpecker pair work alternately. After one has been engaged fifteen or twenty minutes, drilling and carrying out chips, it ascends to an upper limb, utters a loud call or two, when its mate soon appears, and, alighting near it on the branch, the pair chatter and caress a moment, then the fresh one enters the cavity and the other flies away.

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