What Is a Bird’s Nest? Fascinating Facts About How Birds Build Their Homes

In this week’s Torah portion appears the rare mitzvah of sending away the mother bird, which deals with a bird sitting over its eggs or its chicks in the nest.

What exactly is the nest in which the bird raises its young?

What Is a Bird’s Nest?

Most birds build themselves a nest, a small shelter in which they can protect the eggs they lay and the chicks that hatch from them.

In most cases, nests are made from natural materials that the bird finds in its surroundings, such as small twigs, leaves, mud, grass, and similar items.

Birds that live in populated areas often combine human made materials into their nests as well, such as pieces of thread, bits of fabric, metal wire, and even cigarette butts, whose strong smell can help keep pests away from the nest.

Not Every Nest Is in a Tree

People often imagine a nest as a kind of “house in the tree” for the bird. In reality, many nests are built in places that are not near the tops of trees at all.

Each bird builds its nest in a way that suits the way its chicks grow, the environment in which it lives, and the dangers that may threaten it.

For example, while many birds build nests on tree branches, others choose to build inside holes in tree trunks, often holes created by the pecking of a Woodpecker.

Some birds build nests on water, while others build them on the ground in hidden areas.

How Often Do Birds Build Nests?

The frequency of nest building also varies among birds.

Some birds build a new nest every year, while ohers build only one nest that serves them throughout their lives.

There are even birds that build shared communal nests, where several birds use the same nest together.

In some bird species, the female is the one who builds the nest in order to lay her eggs there. In others, it is specifically the male who builds the nest for the female and her chicks.

Simple Nests and Extraordinary Nests

Most nests are fairly simple and mainly include a soft base for the eggs, sometimes with a small protective rim around them.

But some birds build especially unique and elaborate nests.

For example, the Village weaver of Africa builds a nest that looks like a beautifully woven basket, hanging from tree branches and secured with a special knot-like structure.