Building a Bird’s Nest Without Fingers or Opposable Thumbs

A hand-drawn bird's nest

Some weekends ago, I watched a bird carry twigs and other materials to its nest. It seemed as though the bird was fixing up its home after a particularly powerful storm. As I watched the bird working diligently, I began to wonder how difficult the process must be to assemble a nest.

Then I thought about trying to build a nest 20 feet up in the air.

Then I thought about doing that without fingers or opposable thumbs.

How do birds start building a nest? How do they lay one twig or piece of grass (or whatever) and get it to stay there while they go and collect more?

Nature is amazing. I am humbled. As are my fingers and opposable thumbs.

2 comments

  1. Humans. Always bragging about your opposable thumb thumbs as if that makes you more favored by evolution. They aren’t everything. Beaks are a bird’s multitool. They have a virtual Swiss army knife on their face.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *