Birds use anti-bird spikes to make nests, a new discovery by scientists

Urban birds have long used objects in human settlements for nesting purposes. In recent years, researchers have found things like cigarettes and rubber among the sticks and moss. But they were recently surprised to discover that the birds have started using another object in their nests – anti-bird spikes, which are supposed to prevent birds from perching on buildings.

“I didn’t expect this,” Kees Moeliker, director of the Rotterdam Museum of Natural History and one of the authors of a new study on how to protect bird nests, told The Guardian . These anti-bird spikes are intended to deter birds. They should repel them, but on the contrary, birds seem to like them and use them to make nests.”

According to The New York Times , this nest-building trend was first noticed by Auke-Florian Hiemstra, a biologist who studies how animals use human materials. In July 2021, Hiemstra noticed a Eurasian magpie nest with hundreds of anti-bird spikes in Antwerp, Belgium.

Các nhà nghiên cứu ở châu Âu phát hiện ra rằng các loài chim đã sử dụng gai chống chim để làm tổ - Ảnh 1. — Hiemstra describes the Belgian magpie’s nest, surrounded by bird-proof spikes, as a “bird haven.” Research published in Deinsea, the annual magazine of the Rotterdam Museum of Natural History (Netherlands), said similar magpie nests have been found in the Netherlands, Belgium and Scotland. People have also discovered crows making nests of thorns in the Netherlands. This is not the first example of using inappropriate items as bird nests.

“We also described it in the paper as the largest nest we found, a nest that included more than 1,500 metal spikes,” Hiemstra told NPR.

As Hiemstra explained to NPR , magpies often build covered nests. Normally, they collect spikes on the roof of their nests to ward off predators. However, magpies in Antwerp have switched to using anti-bird spikes, and the birds apparently tore them off the side of a nearby building. These spines will face outward, while the inside of the nest is soft and warm.

“I think this is crazy,” Hiemstra told NPR . “They use anti-bird spikes for even more purposes than we do, namely to ward off other birds that might come close to their nests… And I think that’s perfect.”

When researchers started looking for other examples, they found them. Both magpies and crows, intelligent birds in the crow family, have been recorded using anti-bird spikes to build nests in Rotterdam, Glasgow and the Dutch city of Enschede.

Các nhà nghiên cứu ở châu Âu phát hiện ra rằng các loài chim đã sử dụng gai chống chim để làm tổ - Ảnh 2. — Magpie nest with anti-bird spikes in Enschede, Netherlands. Anti-bird spikes are often installed on buildings to prevent birds from nesting there. According to biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra of the Naturalis Center for Biodiversity, magpies are using their spines for the same purpose as humans – “to prevent other birds from touching their nests.” . ”. “It’s like a joke. Even for me, a bird nest researcher, these are still the strangest bird nests I have ever seen,” he said.

Although birds using anti-bird spikes to build nests is new, this is not the first time researchers have documented birds using urban objects to build nests. According to The Guardian newspaper, a museum in South Africa found a crow’s nest in 1933 using materials such as copper, galvanized iron and barbed wire. In recent years, Hiemstra has found bird nests filled with windshield wipers, sunglasses, plastic carnations…

“Almost anything can become part of a bird’s nest,” Hiemstra told The New York Times.

Các nhà nghiên cứu ở châu Âu phát hiện ra rằng các loài chim đã sử dụng gai chống chim để làm tổ - Ảnh 3. — A crow’s nest using anti-bird spikes was found by researchers in Rotterdam. Here, crows used the spikes to add structural stability to their nests.

As The New York Times notes, the consequences of birds using anti-bird spikes are unknown. Other urban objects, such as cigarettes, have proven to be a double-edged sword for birds. The chemicals in cigarettes can protect them from parasites but can also be toxic. Likewise, shiny anti-bird spikes can attract mates or attract predators.

But Hiemstra and other researchers are mostly pleased to find that the birds have adapted very well to their urban environment.

“These birds are very intelligent and they always find ways to cope with the harsh urban life,” Moeliker told The Guardian . I sympathize with crows and magpies.”

“The nesting phenomenon is really a reflection of how animals are now adapting to our urban lives… I think it’s amazing to see these things,” Hiemstra told NPR .

The European Magpie, Magpie, European Magpie is a species of bird that resides in Europe, most of Asia and northwestern Africa. It is one of many species of birds in the Corvidae family. The magpie is about 40–51 cm long. Head, neck and chest glossy black with blue and purple iridescence, belly and shoulders white; The wings are black with a bit of dark blue or purple, the wing feathers have white silk inside, clearly visible when the wings are spread. The gradually spreading tail is black, speckled with coppery green or other iridescent colors. Legs and beak are black.