A selection of elaborate birds’ nests from around the world

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

A selection of elaborate birds’ nests from around the world

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

Spectacled longbill nest

The Trustees of the Natural History Museum/Jonathan Jackson

These elaborate constructions are just some of the birds’ nests found at the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, ***, one of the oldest and largest ornithological collections in the world, with over 1 million specimens.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

Nest of the desert cisticola

The Trustees of the Natural History Museum/Jonathan Jackson

Some of those pictured are built primarily using dry grass, like that of the spectacled longbill (main picture), the only known research specimen, and the opened-up “ball” nest of the desert cisticola (pictured above), which boasts a roof and an entrance ***** bound by spider’s webs. Others, like the brown noddy’s (below), are made of a mix of materials, including bird ********** and a colony of calcifying aquatic invertebrates called bryozoans.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

A brown noddy nest

The Trustees of the Natural History Museum/Jonathan Jackson

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

Nest of the bokmakierie

The Trustees of the Natural History Museum/Jonathan Jackson

The nest of the bokmakierie (pictured above) shows the handiwork of both sexes, with its neat, open-cup design, a common shape for perching birds. The light-vented bulbul’s nest (below), similarly crafted, is largely made from twigs and bamboo leaves. It is in its original shipping packaging from 1896.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

Light‑vented bulbul’s nest

The Trustees of the Natural History Museum/Jonathan Jackson

The multiple open-cup nests (pictured below) are the work of many different birds, but have all been commandeered by the common cuckoo, which lays its eggs in the nests of more than 100 other bird species worldwide.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

The Trustees of the Natural History Museum/Jonathan Jackson

In his new book

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, in which all these images appear, Douglas Russell, senior curator at the museum, delves into the history of some of the specimens. “A nest is a captured piece of the environment, a moment in time,” he says. “You couldn’t ask for a more comprehensive little, tiny, feathered botanist to take up that little sample of material for you.”

New Scientist video
See inside the Natural History Museum’s rare bird archive at

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Topics:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#selection #elaborate #birds #nests #world

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up