Long Way Education

By Eman Abdallah Kamel

Eman is a writer and engineer. She writes on a wide range of topics, including birds and their facts.

In this article, you will learn about 12 types of bird nests, including their construction, facts, examples, human impacts on bird nests, and conservation.

Birds and Nests

Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates that make up the class Aves. They lay hard-shelled eggs, have a four-chambered heart, feathers, toothless beak-like jaws, a strong yet light skeleton, and a high metabolic rate.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a nest is a structure built by birds or insects to lay their eggs for development, or for other animals to give birth or live in.

Different species of birds worldwide have developed distinct nest-building techniques, adapted to their specific environments, lifestyles, and reproductive strategies. Bird nests are incredibly creative and diverse, ranging from simple holes in the ground to intricately woven structures suspended in branches.

The primary purpose of a nest is to provide a safe and stable environment for laying eggs and raising chicks. The nest also serves multiple functions, such as protection from predators, temperature regulation, and structural support.

Let’s explore more about bird nests.

Factors Influencing Nest Type

Several factors determine the type of nest a bird builds:

• Habitat: Forest, grassland, wetland, coastal, or urban environment.
• Climate: Birds in cold climates build well-insulated nests, while tropical birds may use open-ventilated designs.
• Predation risk: Higher risk often leads to hidden or elevated nests.
• Behavior: Solitary versus communal nesting.

Birds’ Nests Types

Here you will learn about the 12 main types of bird nests.

1. Scrape,
2. Platform,
3. Cavity,
4. Cup,
5. Woven,
6. Pendant,
7. Burrow,
8. Mud,
9. Floating,
10. Communal,
11. Saucer,
12. Sphere.

1. Scrape

Scrape nests are typically found on remote sandy beaches in soft soil. The eggs in scrape nests are usually camouflaged to blend in with the surrounding soil, and the eggs are often speckled to resemble the ground on which the nests are built. This is because these nests are vulnerable to predators.

• In deserts and salt flats, the scrape is shallow and lined with shells, stones, feathers, soil, and sticks to keep the eggs cool enough and protect them from extreme heat.
• In Arctic regions, the scrape is deep enough to protect the eggs from freezing temperatures caused by icy winds but shallow enough to protect the eggs from permafrost. These scrape nests are often lined with vegetation and feathers to help insulate them from the freezing temperatures.

Scrape nests are commonly built by ostriches, gulls, terns, hawks, pheasants, and quail.

Did you know?

Ground-nesting birds are members of the pheasant family, which includes heavy-bodied, ground-feeding birds, such as quail, pheasants, and prairie chickens. These birds have small wings and strong legs, which prevent them from flying long distances. Ground-nesting birds are often affected by habitat loss due to equipment footprints and access roads.

Scrape, platform, cavity, and weaving nests. Source of images: istockphotos.com.

2. Platform

Platform nests are usually constructed in trees and shrubs, but they can also be found on ledges and other vegetation above water. These nests are relatively flat, sometimes with a slight depression in the center to contain the eggs and chicks. Platform nests provide a broad base that supports the birds’ eggs and developing young.

Platform nests are built by ospreys, bald eagles, great blue herons, mourning doves, and various raptors, such as hawks and owls.

3. Cavity

A cavity-nesting bird builds a nest, lays its eggs, and raises its young inside a protected cavity with a small entrance hole. Cavity-nesting birds fall into two categories:

• Primary cavity nesters, such as woodpeckers, are strong excavators, while tits are weak excavators.
• Secondary cavity nesters do not excavate their cavities. Instead, they use pre-existing cavities, whether they occur naturally in rocks, are formed from decaying wood or broken twigs, or are excavated by primary cavity nesters.

Examples included woodpeckers, chickadees, bluebirds, tree swallows, owls, wrens, American kestrels, purple martins, and wood ducks.

Did you know?

Woodpeckers often excavate several cavities for nesting, and it may take 10 to 16 days to complete one excavation. Chickadees and woodpeckers, on the other hand, can take between one week and 12 days to excavate a cavity, depending on the softness of the wood.

4. Cup

The cup nest has a deep cavity to hold the eggs and is hemispherical inside. Most are made of flexible materials, including grasses. 

Small bird species, comprising more than twenty families of passerines and some non-passerine birds, use large quantities of spider silk to build their nests. Spider silk is a lightweight, strong, and highly flexible material, enabling nest formation.

Many passerines and some non-passerine birds, including some hummingbirds and some swifts, build cup nests.

5. Woven

There are more than 100 species of weaver birds, mostly in Africa and Asia, and most of them build elaborately woven nests, often using grasses because of their flexibility and abundance.

The nest begins with a single thread, knotted to a branch using a beak and claw. The threads are then passed through other threads at opposite angles, creating a tight weave.

Birds like orioles, oropendolas, and weaverbirds (family Ploceidae) are examples of birds that weave nests.

6. Pendant

Pendant nests are a type of woven nest that hangs from branches and is made of long, flexible materials, such as grass, bark, and hair.

Birds that live in hanging nests include the Baltimore oriole, the ruby-crowned kinglet, and the golden-crowned kinglet.

7. Burrow

Most burrow-nesting birds dig their burrows, but some use those dug by other species. Burrow nests are particularly common among seabirds at high latitudes, as they protect them from cold temperatures and predators.

Species that use burrow nests include puffins, petrels, motmots, toadstools, most kingfishers, and plovers.

8. Mud

This type of nest is made from pieces of mud mixed with the bird’s saliva and then stuck to the undersides of highway bridges, cliff edges, and building eaves.

According to an article written on mcrcd.org, both sexes of cliff swallows help in building the nest. The male usually begins construction before he attracts a mate. They collect mud in their beaks along the banks of streams or lakes, usually near the colony but sometimes as far away as a few miles. They return the mud pellets to their beaks and shape them into place with a rocking motion. The finished nest is gourd-shaped and contains 900–1,200 individual mud pellets. The pair lines their nest with dry grass and continues to patch it with mud throughout the breeding season.

Among birds that build mud nests are flamingos, black-billed magpies, purple martins, Eastern phoebes, rufous horneros, and cliff swallows.

9. Floating

Birds use aquatic plants that have air pockets embedded in their stems and leaves. These plants float once the birds pull them up by their roots underwater.

Birds collect the plant material and pile it up in small rafts, usually in shallow water. The water becomes a natural moat, helping to protect the nests from predators. These floating nests are often found among tall reeds, making them difficult to spot. But it’s not always easy.

The jacana, grebe, marsh tern, and knifebird build these unique floating nests.

Did you know?

Young birds raised in floating nests start paddling in the water soon after hatching and are skilled swimmers, frequently leaving the nest early.

Floating, communal, burrow, and mud nests. Images sourced from dreamstime.com and istockphotos.com.

10. Communal

Social weaver birds do not weave nests. Rather, their nests resemble huts with a grass thatch roof that slopes downward. The structure grows as the birds add new apartments, adding dry grasses to the bottoms and sides. Each of the 100 or more breeding pairs cares for its compartment. The pairs line the interior with soft, fluffy plant material. With dozens of entrances lined up in a row, the lower part of the communal home looks like a honeycomb.

Communal nest birds include sociable weavers, purple martins, and metallic starlings.

Did you know?

The nests of sociable weaver birds in the Namib and Kalahari deserts of South Africa are the largest and most densely populated treehouses in the world, weighing a ton or more and measuring up to 20 feet across and 10 feet high.

11. Saucer

Saucer or plate nests are shallow depressions used by some birds to protect their eggs. These nests are similar to cup nests but with a less pronounced depression.

Examples include the nests of American grebes, small-billed grebes, spotted grebes, and ospreys.

12. Sphere

The sphere nest has a circular structure and is woven from plant materials. Spider webs are also widely used, and other materials such as lichens may be glued onto them for camouflage. Pendulous tits have false entrances, with the parent bird carefully sealing the real entrance upon leaving the nest. These are lined with spiderwebs, which help plug the openings.

These magnificent birds have taught us exceptional skills. We have to protect them and the nests they weave and build with great effort to protect their eggs and young.

Human Impacts on Bird Nesting

Human activity can both harm and help bird nesting:

1. Negative Impacts: Deforestation, habitat loss, urban expansion, and pollution reduce nesting sites.
2. Positive Impacts: Birdhouses, artificial nesting platforms, and conservation efforts can provide safe breeding places.

Conservation and Legal Protection

Many countries have laws protecting bird nests, especially during breeding seasons. Disturbing or removing a nest can have severe consequences for a bird population.

• Example: The Migratory Bird Treaty Act in the United States protects most native bird species and their nests.

Sources

• Ground-Nesting Birds.
• 5 Birds That Nest on the Ground.
• Primary and Secondary Cavity Nesting Birds and Why They Fight Over Birdhouses.
• How Grebes Build Floating Nests That Keep Their Eggs High and Dry.
• Spotting 8 Common Types of Bird Nests.
• Africa’s Social Weaverbirds Take Communal Living to a Whole New Level.
• Communally Nesting Migratory Birds Create Ecological Hotspots in Tropical Australia.

©Eman Abdallah Kamel, 2025

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