Animals have been building nests for millions of years, there are even fossil records of dinosaur nests! Over time nests have become very complex and from birds to turtles to termites and wasps there is beauty, diversity and much to be learned from these structures!

When we hear the word “nest” we tend to think of a standard woven cup structure built by a song bird of some sort, but there is an amazing amount of diversity in nests; materials, shape, strength, size that we don’t necessarily think about.

There is quite a bit of evidence for evolution in bird nests. Some ground nesting birds don’t build nests at all, others make small depressions by rubbing their breast into the ground. Some birds make stick nests either on the ground or in trees and others weave together materials into some of the more complex animal built structures. Birds are always competing for resources, and…