Hi folks — today I’d like to share with you some of my observations on the second part of avian reproduction — the process in which birds make a nest and lay eggs. (By the way, if you look up “bird nesting” on the Internet, the search will lead you to a human activity: a shared custody arrangement where children reside in one house and the parents take turns living there with them. In the bird world, some avian parents will actually share a home, such as this very old and enormous sociable weaver nest (Philetairus socius) that I saw in Namibia.)

Females of a few species will deposit their eggs in the nests of another, such as some cuckoos and brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater). Some people dislike cowbirds intensely because of their nest parasitism (the cowbird baby will hatch first and eat all the food or perhaps get rid of the other eggs or babies). I figure that this is how the cowbird evolved – it didn’t make a choice to wipe out other species so I can’t blame or hate the bird for it. But the cowbirds do appear to pick on particular species as involuntary “foster parents” and this may be affecting the success of the other species’ reproduction.

There are two general broad categories of bird nests – those located in or on man-made objects such as nest boxes, atop downspouts, in vehicles, in plant pots and other places and those constructed by birds in trees, shrubs and on the ground (i.e., the natural environment which I will discuss in the next blog so this doesn’t get too long!). When birds make a nest in a “human area”, people will often try to accommodate them, not using the object or vehicle or making the space safer. For example, when American robins (Turdus migratorius) put a nest on one of my downspouts, I covered the rainwater container underneath it so the fledglings wouldn’t drown when they leapt to freedom. (I did it just in time, too!)

Swallows and phoebes will also use human constructions as places to situate their homes. The cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) gather up mud, making countless trips to wad up small balls of the material to carry back to a place like this pier at Cane Creek Reservoir where they line up their nests in a row.

Barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) locate their nests inside, using rafters to place a nest; they may end up sharing space with paper wasps and organ pipe mud dauber wasps (Trypoxylon politum), which doesn’t seem to bother them.

The Eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) may use an inside corner of a patio overhang as a site that is conveniently accessible from outside.

Purple martins (Progne subis) living east of the Rocky Mountains almost exclusively nest in homes provided by people. The hanging gourd nests can be seen in fields but nowadays other types of plastic constructions are also used.

In order to attract barn owls (Tyto alba) back to areas where many traditional barns have been razed, people are also placing special boxes in fields with plenty of open space in front of them so that the owls will have a hunting territory adjacent to their front door. Made of heavy plastic, these boxes may be monitored by organized groups in an effort to document their use.

At the Mason Farm Biological Reserve, an eagle scout project involved bringing in cranes to attach very large nest boxes to the tops of trees for barred owls (Strix varia) – so far, I have only seen Eastern gray squirrels making use of these nests.

And then there are the nest boxes that people put up to attract Eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis), brown-headed nuthatches (Sitta pusilla) and screech owls. In my yard, other birds use these boxes, too, including the Carolina chickadees (Poecile carolinensis) such as my one-legged,  banded friend Chantal, Carolina wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus) who may puzzle about how to get a long twig into the box and house wrens (Troglodytes aedon), who pile up twigs in a rather untidy stack inside the box.

Chickadees construct lovely mossy nests lined with hair, fur or plant fibers.

The nuthatches have nests with bark strips.

Sometimes people will intervene when a nest is in danger. A Carolina wren put her nest into a boat at Cane Creek Reservoir that was rented out to people and keeping the nest there was not a good option as she would be missing her nest for hours when the boat was gone. The land manager was so kind as to relocate the nest into a tree right in front of the boat’s resting place; unfortunately, inclement weather caused the nest to dislodge that evening.

Another danger may also threaten the birds and their nests – predators. A friend and I found it unusual to see a tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) putting a nest in a bluebird box on the edges of a farm. Several days later, we saw a black rat snake (Pantherophis obsoletus) peering out of the box and the swallows were nowhere to be seen.

If you can manage to mount your boxes on poles rather than trees, put both squirrel and raccoon baffles on them and also place them away from overhanging branches, they should stay relatively safe from the squirrels, snakes and raccoons. Next up: birds’ nests with no human connections.