> “We hypothesize that a bird nest might effectively be a disordered stick bomb, with just enough stored energy to keep it rigid,”
I've had the pleasure of seeing a golden eagle's nest on a mountain top up close and personal, and it was absolutely stunning how meticulous and clean it was. It shocked me. It wasn't a stick bomb at all, it felt organized and roomy, the surfaces were flat, the ambiance was relaxing. The thing felt downright designed and engineered.
Fascinating. I found a video where two eagles work together to arrange a new stick in their nest. (It takes place around 10:25.) They try multiple spots to see where it fits best. [0]
And unrelated to birds, but hearing about how animals "design and engineer" their living spaces reminds me of the pufferfish, which creates beautiful geometric artwork in the sand as a mating ritual. The fish is only about 4 inches long, but the artwork is over 6 feet in diameter. Picture [1] and article [2].
Ever wonder where the big birds get their sticks?
I had just assumed they picked them up the way we would.
But a large bird on the ground wrestling with a stick is vulnerable to ground adapted things.
I have seen them breaking significantly sized dead branches off the tops of trees with full diving attacks where the sticks never hit the ground.
A couple years back, I watched an osprey pull a three-foot length of steel wire out of a frayed cable on one of a tramp steamer's cranes.
Osprey nests are wild. From the outside they look incredibly messy, and the wire wasn't an aberration; the birds make considerable use of human detritus in their engineering (cf. https://i.imgur.com/R2nO1Zu.jpg), and while I've never seen the inside of a nest due to how high up they build, I gather the end result is quite deep and spacious.
On the opposite side of organized nests, I vote for Mourning Doves for the most haphazard, half-*ssed nestmakers. They're notorious for disheveled nests which barely stay together, in odd places:
https://www.wild-bird-watching.com/images/dove-nest-on-hangi...
We had a pair in a planter box whose nest fell apart so often I ended up reinforcing it for them with some twine when they were away! They came back and had two more sets of babies in the same spot.
I've had the pleasure of seeing a golden eagle's nest on a mountain top up close and personal, and it was absolutely stunning how meticulous and clean it was. It shocked me. It wasn't a stick bomb at all, it felt organized and roomy, the surfaces were flat, the ambiance was relaxing. The thing felt downright designed and engineered.