A fun bird nest building activity for kids

Spring is the time of bird songs and animals nesting. There are many different types of nest builders in the animal world and none do it quite as dramatically and well as the birds.

Some birds, such as turkey, vultures, and ruffed grouse, don’t do much more than make a few scrapes on the ground in which to lay their eggs. Many go to great lengths to gather or make materials, constructing a safe and elaborate bowl. They also pick some of the most seemingly precarious locations, but they rarely fail.

Some birds, like osprey, bald eagles, and great horned owls, will return to the same nesting location year after year if left undisturbed. Other birds, like bank swallows and purple martins, will nest in colonies. Tree swallows, chickadees, woodpeckers and screech owls will nest in tree cavities.

Now let’s see how well you can make a bird nest!

Location

You can build outside in the yard or in your favorite park, or gather materials and build the nest inside!

Make sure you have a basket or a bag so you can carry your twigs and branches home.

Materials:

Natural nesting materials include:

• dry grass
• moss
• lichens
• leaves
• mud, and
• twigs.

(Remember: always gather from the ground. Don’t pick live plants!)

Tools

• Tweezers (if you want to try using them as your “bird beak!”)
• A shallow bucket or pan (may be helpful if you choose to build inside)

You will need a forked branch that will be the base of the nest.

For inside building:

Find a dead branch that has a few small branches close together where you can build your nest to bring inside. You may want to find a way to wedge it in or stabilize so it doesn’t fall over.

Whip up a batch of mud not too think, not too thin. Our our pile of twigs.

Outside:

Find either a dead branch you can move near you or a live branch you can reach with a few small branches close together where you can build your nest.

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Let’s Begin

Birds make this task look easy with their slender and agile legs gripping on to a small perching surface. They gently weave and tuck materials around to shape the cup and walls of the nest. It’s not quite as easy as it looks.

Keep weaving twigs until the nest has "walls" and a "middle." It will look like this. (We added some white pine boughs. Next add mud!)

Give it a go:

Gather up several handfuls of good nesting materials, small twigs, grasses, leaves, shredded bark, vines, or other natural materials. Pick a good branch at an easy to reach height and try to construct a nest using your hands. For young children it might be a good idea for an adult to help.

Note: This activity may take some patience. It is okay to not have a perfect nest. Remember: birds are experts!

Keep adding mud and twigs. You are sculpting, weaving and engineering a nest! Once you start adding the mud, getting the twigs to stay in place becomes much easier. At this point you can start shaping your nest!

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Try it Like a Bird

For a fun challenge, attempt nest building using only tweezers to hold and manipulate the materials! Or just use two fingers to be your “bird beak.” 

Which way was easier? Can you think of other methods to construct a better nest? Did you use mud? For further fun, research online or in a book to see what other materials different bird species use.