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The Materials and Shape of Bird Nests
The question is often asked whether birds use the same nest more than once. Birds differ in this respect. John Burroughs divided birds into three groups. One group, as the bluebird, house wren, fish hawk, and eagle, repairs the last year’s nest. A second group, including the phcebe, builds a new nest each season, but may rear more than one brood in the nest. A third group, which includes most of our birds, builds a new nest each year and for each brood when more than one is reared.
Materials. Birds use a great variety of materials in the construction of their nests. Among the more common materials are dry grass, rootlets, small twigs, and hair. Robins and barn swallows use mud. The Baltimore oriole uses string, yarn, and hair. The catbird uses strips of bark from the grapevine. The house wren fills its nesting-cavity with small twigs. The phabe constructs its nest of mosses and mud. Many nests contain materials which man has indirectly furnished, such as strings, yarn, pieces of cloth and of paper.
The nest is usually lined with a finer, softer material than that used in the foundation. The chip.. ping sparrow uses horsehair for a lining, and many birds use a very fine plant down. The crested flycatcher almost invariably puts into its nest a castoff snake-skin.
Shape. The shape of the nest of the robin and chebee has been observed in a number of cases to be moulded by the breast of the bird, which moves round and round in the nest fitting it to the breast.
The cavities which woodpeckers make are found to agree in general shape. This cavity is not simply a hole of uniform diameter, but it is somewhat flask-shaped, gradually growing larger till near the bottom, and then tapering to a point. The only materials in the woodpecker’s nest are the chips that happen to fall down, and the pointed cavity keeps the eggs from rolling around.
The marsh wren builds a globular nest attached to the reeds of the marsh and makes an entrance at one side. So strongly developed is the nesting instinct in this bird that it builds several extra nests besides the one which it uses.
Time occupied in building. Observations have been made on birds while building nests and it is found that the time occupied in building the nest varies, both with the species of bird and with the same species at different times. A pair of house wrens was found to occupy seven days in constructing a nest. This nest contained one thousand sticks, so that about one hundred and fifty sticks were brought a day, or an average of ten per hour.
Mr. Francis IL Herrick watched a pair of robins building and found that they completed the nest in three days. On the first day the birds worked five hours; on the second, fourteen, and on the third four and one half, making a total of twenty-three and one half hours. On the first day, both male and female worked; on the second and third days, the female alone. During this time two hundred and eighteen loads of material were brought to the nest. On the first day an average of seventeen visits per hour was made; on the second day, eight visits; and on the third day, five visits.
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