Material structure papers
Bailey, I.E., Morgan, K.V., Bertin, M., Meddle, S.L. & Healy, S.D. 2014. Physical cognition: birds learn the structural efficacy of nest material. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 281: 1784 Muth, F. & Healy,…
Search by category: nest construction
Nest colour papers
Bailey, I. E., Muth, F., Morgan, K., Healy, S. D. 2015. Birds build camouflaged nests. AUK 132 (1): 11-15 Muth, F., Steele, M., Healy, S.D. 2013. Colour preferences in nest-building zebra finches. Behavioural…
The role of cognition in nest construction
A historical perspective “It is a somewhat remarkable fact that not withstanding the extreme popularity of the subject of Birds’ Nests, no book has yet been published entirely devoted to these beautiful and curious…
Paying attention to camouflage
That birds’ build camouflaged nests is well known, but whether this results from birds paying attention to the characteristics of their nest site and trying to find building material to match or simply from birds…
Learning to choose the right material
Birds’ decisions about what nest-materials to use to build with have typically been considered to be genetically determined. We believed learning may also be important in nest material selection as birds are known to…
Brain activity during nest construction
To implicate regions of the brain in nest construction behaviours, Zach Hall looked for correlations between levels of neuronal activity in different brain regions and the performance of nest building behaviours in…