Birds have by no means shied away from turning human garbage into nesting supplies, however even specialists within the discipline have raised an eyebrow on the newest handiwork to emerge from city crows and magpies. From a report: Nests recovered from bushes in Rotterdam within the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium had been discovered to be constructed virtually solely from strips of lengthy metallic spikes which are typically connected to buildings to discourage birds from organising dwelling on the buildings.
The invention prompted researchers on the Pure Historical past Museum in Rotterdam and the Naturalis Biodiversity Heart in Leiden to scour the web for additional examples, resulting in the identification of two extra anti-bird spike nests: one in Enschede within the Netherlands and one other in Glasgow. “I actually thought I would seen all of it,” stated Kees Moeliker, the director of the Pure Historical past Museum Rotterdam, who studied the crow’s nest discovered throughout tree upkeep close to the town’s important railway station. “I did not count on this. These anti-bird spikes are supposed to deter birds, they’re speculated to scare them off, however quite the opposite, the birds simply utilise them.”
Whereas the Rotterdam nest was made by crows, the opposite three had been constructed by magpies, which assemble massive dome-like nests. The crows used the anti-bird spikes as a sturdy building materials, however the magpies could have appreciated their meant use: they positioned many of the spikes on the nest’s roof the place they might deter predators, together with different birds and weasels. […] It isn’t the primary time birds have been discovered to include city supplies into their nests. In 1933, a South African museum reported a crow’s nest common from hard-drawn copper, galvanised iron and barbed wire. Nails, screws and even drug customers’ syringes have all discovered their method into birds’ nests.
