This swallow nest is full of hungry baby birds!
Bird nests come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. Here are the four main types of nests that the majority of birds make when having babies.
Birds, similar to people, live all over the world in a variety of environments. Some live near water and others live in the mountains or forest. People in different parts of the world build houses out of different materials to meet their needs. Birds also build or use a variety of nests to meet their needs. There are many different types of nests from a super simple scrape in the ground to a huge platform nest of a bald eagle.
Do You Know The Difference Between A Bird Nest and Bird Roost?
Before we get into the main types of bird nests I want to make sure you understand exactly when birds use the nest. A bird uses a nest only when it is ready to lay eggs and have babies.
The nest is not like most animals houses where they seek shelter at night. For the majority of their lives, birds do not sleep in the nest at night. At night, outside of when they are raising babies, they will find a roost. A roost is a sheltered spot where the bird will rest or sleep.
Bird Nests Are Used By Birds To Raise Baby Birds
The nest is incredibly important when it comes to baby birds because this is where the parents lay the eggs that become baby birds.
Some birds use a nest many times during a year (which means they have babies more than once during the year), but most use it only once.
Increcdibly, most birds build a new nest every year. However, some birds, such as the Peregrine Falcon or Bald Eagle, may reuse the same nest every year.
How Do Birds Build A Nest?
The first step in building a nest is choosing the location. It may be towards the bottom or top of a tree, on a cliff face, in a hole in a tree for woodpeckers, or on the ground. Wherever it is, after the location is selected the bird then builds its nest.
Thing about this, without any plans or hands, birds build their nests. They make the nest strong enough to withstand storms, big enough to hold their entire family, and waterproof enough to keep out the rain. Can you imagine building a new house for your family without any hands or plans?
They rely on their natural instincts and past experience to build a nest.
What Are Bird Nests Made Of?
Bird nests are made of natural things in the area, such as sticks, feathers, mud, or dried grass.
Different types of birds will build a nest of different material. For example, a Barn Swallow, a common Rocky Mountain bird, will build a nest out of mud.
Nesting material is limited to what a bird can carry in its beak. Most nests take between one to two weeks to build!
The Four Main Kinds Of Bird Nests
A ground nest is simply a nest on the ground.
A ground nest is just what it sounds like. The bird will dig out or just find a small depression in the ground and use that for its nest.
A cup nest is the classic nest in the shape of a cup to hold the eggs.
A cup nest is what we most often think of when we think of a bird nest. It has a nice, round cup in the middle to hold and keep the eggs secure.
A platform nest is a large, flat nest built on top of something.
A platform nest is often built by large raptors and sits on top of a clifftop, tree, or post. Some get very large if they are reused year after year and added to every year.
A pendulous nest hangs upside down.
This may be the most unusual of the nests. A pendulous nest is attached to a branch of a tree and hangs down from it. The entrance is somewhere down towards the bottom of the nest.
Other Types Of Nests
Not all birds use these four main types. There are a many different types of nests out in the world.
Some of the other types include a nest in a tree (cavity nest) or in the ground (a burrow). Or a bird may build a mound that rises up off the ground or above the water.