Funky Nests in Funky Places

Celebrate Urban Birds often has contests and the previous contest was to send in images of nests in funky places. There are hundreds of entries to browse through on their website. When confronted with naysayers who announce that an urban setting will never be friendly to wildlife I simply point out how resilient nature is. Malcolm Wells (sadly, who recently passed away) points this out as well in his book Recovering America. We work hard to keep our urban setting nature free. Without human interference the plants would soon take over and start to restore itself. There are some good illustrations and photos of this idea in Recovering America.

This photo contest makes the same point, birds can and will nest nearly anywhere. Among the places submitted are in shoes, on balconies, in various pipes, on store signs, in door wreaths, in bathrooms, garbage cans, paper boxes, bbq’s, bird feeders, on top of upright tools, in a bicycle helmet, in porch lights, on basketball hoops, ladders and even in cars. What’s even more amazing is the sacrifice people give in order to let the birds nest successfully. Many people gave up use of their front door, ladder, car or even bathroom plunger and were happy about it.

It’s amazing to me that we put so much effort and energy into constructing the perfect nest box and some species are just as happy in a plastic bucket or a boot. We have so much to learn.

Make sure you visit the Celebrate Birds website to see the entries.

Liked this? Take a second to support Kelly Brenner on Patreon!