Birds

3.8

Most birds have a summer and a winter home.

Spring is the time when birds build their nests and lay their eggs. The nests are really the summer homes of the birds, and they must be strong enough, after the eggs are hatched, to bear the weight of the young until they are ready to fly.

The birds build their nests in many different places and in different ways. Some birds such as swifts and ostriches build their nests in holes in the earth. Some birds build their homes on the ground. For example, eagles build their nests high up on the cliffs where their eggs are safe.

There are many birds which build their nests in grass (cranes), in bushes (robins, nightingales), in trees (sparrows, crows, owls, starlings). Finally, there are birds which lay their eggs in holes in trees. You know the woodpeckers, of course. We sometimes call them carpenters among the birds. Many other birds use the holes which woodpeckers made the year before.