Here’s a nest that was under construction in Marcy’s cherry tree more than a week ago. By now it has eggs.
Can you tell whose nest this is? Here are some hints:
- The female selects the site and builds the nest.
- She uses grasses, weed stalks, and strips of cloth or string.
- The materials are held together with wet, soft mud that she carries to the nest to cement it. Mud is essential.
- Working from the inside of the cup, the female molds the nest to the contours of her body.
- As a finishing touch, she lines the inside with soft grasses.
- She does not maintain the nest so it deteriorates with use and might even blow out of the tree.
- It takes 5 to 7 days for her to construct the first nest of the season, a little less time for subsequent nests.
- The female builds a new nest — or builds on top of the old nest — for subsequent broods.
Whose nest is this? Leave a comment with your answer.
(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
Robin?
It looks like the robin’s nest in a winged euonymus outside my bedroom window, so that’s my guess. 🙂
A robin?
Yes, a robin’s nest.
It was only 1/2 built when I took the photo….it’s in an ornamental cherry tree…now there are eggs, but it’s just high enough I can’t see how many…hope she stays dry in all this rain…she’s a good mama staying on the nest…
Is there a bird who nests over more of North America than the American Robin?
Good question, Bill. My hunch is that the robin wins on the widespread-habitat-and-abundance scales. Just a hunch, though. Other abundant birds, like starlings, don’t nest in the forest (robins do) or they don’t nest in Alaska (robins do). Hmmmm.
The nest building description matches that of the American Robin on my balcony~
A few weeks ago I spotted a female robin busy at work building her nest. I’ve been nest-watching it since. I’ve posted some photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7576877@N05/sets/72157626643152612/ if anyone’s interested. 🙂
Thanks Marcy and Monika for sharing and how cool we all had the right answer! Hints from Kate were a big help also.
Lisa, I lost your comment about “the clue that did it.” ! It was accidentally marked as a spam comment. Yikes! Sometimes computers think too much. I think this has happened to one or two comments from others in the past. 🙁
We had a successful robin nest in the top of our California Fan Palm last summer. We didn’t even know she was up there as she built it, but she did a great job and 3 young robins fledged, sliding down the fronds into the bushes in the garden. We didn’t know they nested in palms, but there ya’ go . . . So far no sign of a nest this year.