Nest Building in Birds

Most bird species construct nests of some form in which to lay eggs and raise offspring. Traditionally, behaviours associated with the location and design of birds’ nests were thought to be innate and inflexible, which is at least partly due to the paucity of research examining nest building behaviours. There is increasing evidence, however, that there are multiple points at which birds make decisions concerning their nest: where to build, what to build and which material to use. Nest structure is determined by a number of factors including natural selection, sexual selection, ectoparasite avoidance and environmental adjustment. The choice of nest site and materials may be affected by a bird’s own experience or by the experience of conspecifics. A bird may also learn at least some aspects of nest building from observing others. For such a key component of reproduction, it is perhaps surprising that there is rather little known about the causes and consequences of variation in nest structure and almost nothing about building itself.