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A basket style nest

A nest is a place of refuge to hold an animal's eggs and/or provide a place to raise their offspring. They are usually made of some organic material such as twigs, grass, and leaves; or may simply be a depression in the ground, or a hole in a tree, rock or building. Human-made materials, such as string, plastic, cloth, hair or paper, may be used.

Generally each species has a distinctive style of nest. Nests can be found in many different habitats.

Nests are built primarily by birds, but also by mammals, fish, insects and reptiles.

They may have some or all of the following zones: attachment; outer decorative layer; structural layer; lining.

Some birds will build nests in trees, some (such as vultures, eagles, and many seabirds like Kittiwakes) will build them on rocky ledges, and others nest on the ground or in burrows.

Bird nest

Baby Blue Jays in a nest

Main article: Bird nest

Most species of birds build some sort of nest, though some lay their eggs directly onto rock ledges or bare soil without first modifying the area. Nest types vary from the very simple scrape, which is merely a shallow depression in soil or vegetation, to the elaborately woven pendant or sphere; some bird species use cavities in trees or dig burrows into the ground.

Names of nests

• A badger's nest is called a sett.
• An eagle's nest is called an eyrie.
• A squirrel's or ringtail possum's nest is called a drey.
• A hare's nest is called a form.
• A pheasant's nest is called a nide.
• A wasps' nest is called a vespiary.

Gallery

Single egg in the nest of an American Robin	Nest in grass	Rook and Eurasian Jackdaw nests	3 Great Horned Owl chicks in their nest
The inside of a bird's nest	Redwings typically make ground nests	Mud nests made by swallows	Female Bald Eagle on nest with egg
A nest in a lamp	A bird building a basket nest	A nest containing eggs	A yellow faced honeyeater feeding its chcks
Richard's Pipit Anthus richardi chicks in a nest on the ground	Colonial pendant nests of Montezuma Oropendola	Wasp starting a nest	Insect nest in culvert, Wilcannia, New South Wales Australia
Blackbird nest with four eggs	Eastern gray squirrel's drey in South Nottinghamshire, England

References

• Hansell, Bird nests and construction behaviour, CUP 2005, ISBN 0-521-01764-5

See also

• Birdnesting – the criminal activity of collecting nests and eggs
• Bird nest
• Bird's nest soup
• Crow's nest
• Nest box

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Nest

• www.earthlife.net/birds/nests.html

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 7 November 2008, at 17:49.

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