My son, Josiah, likes to make things, and because of this I try to include lots of hands-on activities in our homeschool lessons. For the past few weeks we have been learning about birds so when we came across this website with directions on building a bird nest and testimonials that birds will actually inhabit the nests, he insisted on trying it out.
Now, I don't like my kids to be disappointed, so I promptly began to tell him not to expect actual birds to take over his nest. After all, things like that don't usually happen. But then I recalled a few years ago when he and his brother built a bird trap out of sticks and a heavy-duty Army net, and while they failed to catch a bird, they did catch a rabbit. We found it all wound up in the net and we had to (very carefully) cut the net off of the little guy with a pair of scissors. He was unharmed but very scared, and I don't know if I have ever seen an animal run faster in my entire life!
Josiah gathered all the supplies listed on the website and began carefully creating his nest. He took into consideration the size of the birds, their eggs and the number of peeps in their family . Also important was the fact that the birds must be warm and comfortable at night while there are babies in the nest so lots of straw was added.
After the nest was completed we spent quite a while scouring the yard for the perfect tree. This took a little longer than usual
because we needed a branch with more than two offshoots so that the nest wouldn't fall over in the wind.
Nest making is a messy way to spend time in the kitchen, but Josiah felt that the project was a success and he checks daily to see if any birds have claimed it as their own. So far, no go, but the nest has managed to remain perched on the tree branch in spite of some heavy wind and rain.
Will the nest ever be filled? My mommy brain says probably not, but a bird-trap building boy reminds me that you never can tell!
