Bird nests are amazing things – intricately constructed by animals from fluff, twigs, grass and lichen to make a hidden little space that's perfect for raising chicks. But some birds like to make a statement. From the incredibly huge nests of storks and bald eagles, to an intricate shelter made from colourful plastic, an astounding array of bird nests can be found around the world.
The largest bird nest ever discovered was built by a bald eagle in Florida – it measured almost 3m wide and 6m deep. And the smallest is generally considered to be made by the vervain hummingbird (Mellisuga minima), which constructs a tiny nest roughly half the size of a walnut shell.
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Read on to discover some of the weirdest bird nests on the planet, all painstakingly constructed by our feathered friends to give their offspring the best chance in life.
12 of the weirdest bird nests on the planet
Hamerkop
The hamerkop bird is known for having the largest nest in Africa, despite being a medium-to-small-sized bird. Some nests have been documented as being over 1.5m in diameter and weighing 90kg. Pairs of birds build the nests, which can contain as many as 8,000 sticks or bits of grass and are usually situated in the fork of a tree over water. The hamerkop's nest takes around 10 weeks to build and the bird often continues adding to it after eggs have been laid.
Hamerkops love a nest: often they will build nests regardless of whether they are breeding.
Bowerbird
The nest of the bowerbird isn't strictly a nest for raising young, but we love it so much that we had to include it on this list.
The kleptomaniac bird is famed for its eye-catching bowers – a structure the male bowerbird makes on the floor out of sticks and twigs. The tiny walled spot is for the female to sit in and be entertained by the male, before agreeing to mate with him.
As if the bower wasn't enough, the male bird also goes about finding the most colourful trinkets it can to decorate the structure and entice the female in.
Once they have mated, the female then goes off to create a nest of her own above ground. Less attractive looking, but much safer.
Oropendola
You'd be forgiven for thinking the nest of the oropendola bird was in fact a fruit hanging from the branches of a tree. Native to Central and South America, oropendolas create huge hanging pouches high in the rainforest canopy. The pouches can measure up to 2m long and, as the birds breed in colonies, you are likely to see several nests hanging from the same tree. Often that tree is tall and isolated, perhaps making them harder for predators to reach.
Built by the females using vines, grasses, palm leaf fibres and bark strips, fibres are woven once an anchor point to a branch has been lassoed on.
Jacana
Talk about risk: the jacana bird's nest is probably the riskiest of all the nests on this list. These unique structures, made out of lily pads, leaves and stems, are designed to float on water. Once it's built and the female has laid her eggs, the male cares for them for around 24 days. The male has specially adapted wings to allow him to tuck the eggs, and even the chicks, close to his body to keep them warm and stop them from getting wet.
Sociable weaver
While the bald eagle is responsible for the world's largest nest made by a pair of birds, the award for the largest communal nest has to go to the sociable weaver, which are native to South Africa. One of the most remarkable and recognisable of all bird nests, they can be made up of hundreds of compartments and up to 500 birds.
Each compartment is home to a pair of birds and their brood, and the nest itself looks like a huge haystack in a tree. Twigs, straw, cotton and fur are all used to create this structure, and all of the weavers help to maintain the nest. Some nests have been found to last for more than 100 years and weigh up to 1,000kg.
Stork
The stork nest is another whopper, often constructed on rooftops, chimneys and pylons – as well as trees. Part of the reason stork nests get so big is because they rarely build a new nest. Instead the adults return to the old nest and add to it each year. There have been some nests recorded as being over 1.8m tall, 2m wide and weighing up to a tonne.
The nests are sometimes used by other birds, including house sparrows, starlings and even owls and kestrels.
Flamingo
Messy but marvellous, the flamingo doesn't shy away from getting its hands, or rather feet, dirty when it comes to building nests. Both parents create a mound-like structure with mud gathered in shallow waters.
Bald eagle
Officially the planet's largest tree nest builder, the bald eagle's nest is often at least 2m in diameter. One nest in Florida measured 6m deep and weighed 2 tonnes. Much like the stork, the bald eagle returns to the same nest and builds on it each year, which is why they are so large. The nest itself also has to be big to support the eaglets, which gain weight very quickly. Wingspans for fully fledged chicks can reach up to 2m.
These birds are monogamous, and work together to raise their young and build the nest, which can take anywhere between one and three months to construct.
Ovenbird
The ovenbird (rufous hornero) creates a beautiful domed nest out of mud and straw on the branches of trees or man-made structures. Taking between five days and several months to complete, the nests are complex creations with an entrance that's either to the right or left of the centre. Around 20–30cm in diameter and 20–25cm tall, they are almost never reused by the pair of birds that originally created them. Red ovenbirds have been known to build new nests on top of old ones, leaving several stacked on top of each other.
Golden headed cisticola
This small cisticola bird hails mainly from Africa and is recognised for its tiny and beautiful nests built using cobwebs, along with leaves and grass. All the elements are stitched together by both the female and male birds, although it is the female who incubates the eggs on her own.
Cuckoo
Definitely the cheekiest bird on this list, the cuckoo does away with nest building altogether. Instead, the mother finds another bird's nest, kicks out one egg and lays her egg in its place when no one is looking.
This mimicry goes so far that often the eggs themselves will look like the host's eggs. Cuckoos are quick hatchers, which means often they will become the dominant chick in the nest, usually taking over it entirely. Tricking another bird into raising their young saves the adult cuckoos energy and means they are free to leave the UK for warmer climes earlier.
Common tailorbird
Another tiny but remarkable nest is that of the common tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius), which makes a nest inside sewn-together leaves. While not all tailorbird nests are the same, generally they use leaves to hide their nests and bind them together using materials such as spider silk and plant fibres. The holes they make in the leaf are so tiny, they don't affect the leaf itself so it doesn't wither. The birds make between 150 and 200 stitches per nest.
