The tailorbird, the spiderhunter, and a conversation with Sarah

I learned a bunch of cool things about how birds build nests from a book called Bird Nests and Construction Behavior, by Mike Hansell. There are birds that have processes of nest building that include sewing, pop riveting, weaving, knotting, and velcro. They create their nests with different layers — some layers to provide structure, some for insulation — and use their bodies as forms around which to build the nests. A deep youtube rabbit hole shows birds building nests by piling up loose material and then spinning their bodies in it, almost like they’re swimming in it, to form the shape of the nest around themselves.

Here are some quotes from the book that particularly resonated with me:

“An important negative point to make about builders is that they don’t have to be clever to be good at it” (p14)

“But for structures built from the top down there are essentially only two ways that they can be prevented from tearing themselves apart. They must be bound together or the must be stuck together. It is a problem that must be solved by all organisms that build structures in tension” (p19)

I have started building some nests instructed by the birds building nests.