Nature Crafts - Nest Building
Have you ever wondered how a bird knows how to build a nest ? They aren't taught how to do it ... they just know. Using little more than mud, moss, leaves, twigs, grasses and discarded feathers and animal hair, birds can create amazing homes in which to rear their young.
In this video, we see some children building their own nest using the same resources available to birds in the wild.
Building a Nest
This is a fun activity for children to do when in the forest. It starts as a scavenger hunt, with the children going off to look for the things they need to build the nest, and then become an engineering task as they start to work out how to create the nest from what they have collected. It involves problem solving and, if they are working in small groups, is a good team working activity.
This activity, though, lends itself to talking a bit more about why birds build nests, a discussion that can lead on to talking about what other animals do.
Where do rabbits live? What about squirrels? Or Foxes? And badgers? What about deer? Or owls? Do THEY build a nest? And what about bats?
And if these animals do build themselves homes ... what are they called? Are they all called the same thing?
Where would we find them? How could we spot them as we walk about in the woods?
Like many activities you will learn about as you work through the resources on this website, think about how the activity could be part of a wider project, perhaps even as a fun starting point for projects on nature or the environment.
Points to ponder ...
Most children enjoy learning about animals, and we should encourage this.
One thing to remember, though, is that, while WE are treating forests or other natural environments as our 'playgrounds,' for the animals living there, the environment is their home.
We must teach children not to disturb animals or their homes. We should not be taking nests down from trees or out of bushes to show children how they are made, as, if they are disturbed, the birds or animals will not return to them, and, if they have young, this could mean that the young will die. Similarly, while it might be ok to let children climb trees, we shouldn't do so if we can see that a bird or some other animal lives there.
This task offers an opportunity to talk about conservation, a topic that comes up in some other activities as well. We should always remind children not to damage natural environments. Snapping branches off of trees, damaging moss or flowers, or dropping litter can all have a damaging effect on the ecology of the area, and that can eventually lead to irreparable damage.