To counteract all the bad news, which is making me depressed and cranky, here’s a lovely 22-minute video of different type of bird nests (including the “bowers” of bowerbirds, which aren’t nests). But both bowers and nests are aspects of an organism’s evolved “extended phenotype”, as Dawkins emphasizes in his eponymous book. Some of the nests discussed are quite complicated, and all are adaptive: clearly genes that control nest-building behaviors have left more copies than alternative forms of those genes.
I’m amazed by some of these nests, especially the nests of hummingbirds, eagles, horned coots, great hornbills, and, most of all, the penduline’s nest described beginning at 19:35. The hidden and close-able entrance evolved to foil predators is amazing.
The last nests, those of sociable weavers, are also stunning.
The Swiftlet nest … ew! Who would eat that?
They all design such an incredible product. Great architects/industrial designers.
I’m particularly fond of the cup nests of hummingbirds. So tiny yet so strong.
One of my treasures in a jar is a hummingbird nest that I found on the ground many years ago. About an inch and a half across, in perfect condition, it was still attached to a small branch and covered with tiny bits of lichen held together with finely woven natural threads, some of which are probably spider silk. Inside the nest is a separate cream-colored bedding that looks very comfortable and so clean and soft that I doubt it had held any eggs.
I’ve been honored to observe several hummingbird nests being built and used to support a new generation. One story is too long to recount here, but I tried to keep an abandoned hummingbird chick alive overnight — a hopeless task for an amateur like me, without appropriate nutrients, even though I was in contact with staff at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. But I was compelled to try, given a featherless miniature bird creature not even the size of a quarter. I waited a long time in the morning after the final forlorn “peep” (pip) before finally going to my day job.
That is so sad. Birds and lizards… I’ve had so many die in my hands with me sobbing and snotting all over their little lifeless bodies. It tears your heart out.
Thanks you Jerry! Best 20 minutes I spent all day!
Way cool.
Thanks for this one. also depressed & cranky, for the same reasons. Must be some kind of way out of here…