If you’ve ever wondered how a bird builds its nest, what better way to learn than by building a bird’s nest yourself!
Birds make their nests from all sorts of natural materials, and different species tend to use different things depending on what’s available in their habitat. Some of the materials that birds use include twigs, feathers, moss, lichen and even spider silk. By the coast, there are a wide variety of nest-makers! For example, puffins mostly nest underground in burrows and crevices, and sometimes they even borrow empty rabbit burrows. A few wader birds, such as curlews and lapwings, nest in rough pasture. Gannets nest right on the cliff-side, but they make hardly any nest at all!
Blackbirds nest (c) Lizzie Wilberforce
The key to a successful nest is to make it large enough to hold the eggs and the parent, stable enough to withstand wind, warm enough to prevent the eggs and chicks getting cold, and camouflaged from predators.
Do you think you could build a successful nest? Why not become an engineer for the day and give it a try!
EXTRA: Seabirds need nests too! Where do you think they could build them and what would they be made of? Download our worksheet below to test your seabird nesting knowledge!
What you will need:
- Container to collect things in (e.g., basket, bucket)
- Natural materials collected from your garden or during a walk such as sticks, feathers, leaves, moss and grass.
How to make a bird’s nest:
Nests can be built indoors or outdoors, depending on the size and materials being used. In some ways, it’s best to let the children explore the best way to construct a nest by trial and error, but here are few instructions to guide the way…
- Have you ever seen a bird’s nest? Look around outside – can you see any in trees or on buildings? What are they made of?
- Start by building a framework for your nest with larger sticks or rocks, interlocking them to form the basic structure. Use smaller sticks or rocks to keep adding to the structure, filling in any large holes.
- Once the outer structure of the nest is looking sturdy, find softer materials such as feathers and moss to line the nest.
- Show your finished nests to each other. Would eggs withstand wind? Are they warm enough? Are the camouflaged?
- The size of the nest, amount of material available and the size of the area the activity is taking place in should be considered before nest building begins. You could put model eggs inside for decoration, or sit in it for a photo if it’s a big nest!
To give this challenge a scientific twist for older children, assign them a species of bird and habitat, so that they have to consider which materials they will need to find and what size of nest they need to build.
In a group? Why not split up into teams and make it a challenge and vote for the best nest at the end!
© Lyndsay Mark
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