www.hindu.com
Text and pictures by RANJIT LAL
They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are simple, some beautiful. But they all serve the same purpose. The bird’s nest is but a home to raise its young.
Dogs live in kennels, horses in stables, cows in barns and birds in nests; that’s what most children are taught in kindergarten. Right? But actually that’s not quite right! Actually nests are really nothing but nurseries where eggs are laid and incubated and fledglings served 500 meals a day by their doting parents. And like parents everywhere, birds too make sure that their young have the most comfortable nurseries for their chicks — well most of them do
Let’s start from the ground up. There are those birds, like lapwings, peafowl and partridges that nest on the ground, some laying their eggs on the bare ground, others providing padding of some kind. A large number of bird families have realised the usefulness of holes, hollows and cavities — to bring up their families. Some, like the bee-eaters and kingfishers excavate horizontal tunnels in earth banks — and so must be done with nesting by the time the monsoon breaks or risk their homes and families being washed away. Barbets and woodpeckers are known for their ability to drill neat holes in tree trunks and branches, where they nest, though often mynas might muscle in and turf them out like the land-grabbing Mafiosi. Parakeets too nest in holes, as do owls. The hornbill seals up his mate in a hollow to ensure that she (and her eggs) are safe from the hollow-grabbing Mafiosi types. More artistic and sophisticated are those that build delicate “cup” usually in bushes and shrubs and trees, using grass, straw, stems and twigs woven together with immense skill. Some birds obviously seem to like swinging homes, and build “pendant” nests, and these may range from awful bags of rubbish look-alikes to the graceful vase-like nests of the weaverbirds.
The weaverbird is of course world famous as an architect and a bigamist, but is also very sensitive to criticism. He’ll start off building a nest and when a female comes along, home and husband hunting, will excitedly invite her over. She will inspect the construction and if she approves, will move in then and there with him. He’s delighted of course, and after seeing that she is comfortable (though she provides the soft furnishings) will promptly begin constructing a second home for a second wife and so on, the lousy two-timer! But if she does not approve, he’s likely to throw a right royal tantrum and will destroy his nest and start building afresh. The tailorbird is of course famous for “stitching” leaves together with pliable stalks to form a pouch in which it builds its nest.
Then there are those birds that use what we have used for home building through the ages: mud and straw. Swallows and swifts make homes out of mud and straw, using saliva as cement. They build these in the corners of buildings and houses, and a swallow building its nest in the cornice of your house is considered to be a good omen. The Edible-nest swiftlets use only saliva for their nests (dispensing with the straw and mud) and we — as though starving — have found these nests delicious in concoctions such as “bird’s nest soup”. So much so that the birds are now in danger of extinction because we’re slurping up all their homes. Disgusting, aren’t we?
Like us, many birds live in what you could call are mass housing colonies. Water birds like storks, herons, and egrets, and of course, seabirds, often live in teeming mixed group colonies, some as crowded as the old neighbourhoods of many cities. And of course, many species are learning to live with us, in cities and towns and homes: sparrows on the top of ceiling fans, doves (in one case) on the top of fridges and other such unsuitable locations, sunbirds in our balcony creepers, and mynas in lamp-posts and traffic lights — to mention just a few cases. And birds belonging to the notorious cuckoo family, don’t build nests at all — they sort of give up their chicks for adoption by plonking their eggs in the nests of other birds.
If you do find a nest that is occupied, stay away from it as much as possible. Even if you think that the parent birds do not mind your presence, by constantly peering into a nest or hanging about, you may tip off predators such as cats and crows of the nest’s location. And in some cases, the parent birds may just desert it and you’ll be saddled with the responsibility of incubating the eggs, and feeding the chicks with 500 hairy caterpillars apiece every day! And of course, like the little girl in the film “Fly Away Home”, you’ll have to teach them how to fly too — though that might be fun.
