Absurd Creature of the Week: The Bird That Builds Nests So Huge They Pull Down Trees

[unhappycamper]

http://www.wired.com/2014/08/absurd-creature-of-the-week-the-bird-that-builds-nests-so-huge-they-pull-down-trees/



At some point, a tree becomes more nest than tree. That sounds like the kind of proverb that old guy at my local bar would tell me.

Absurd Creature of the Week: The Bird That Builds Nests So Huge They Pull Down Trees
By Matt Simon
08.22.14 | 6:30 am

My father worked for over 30 years in construction, falling off of ladders and getting slivers of metal in his eye and generally bleeding profusely. He toiled like a maniac so our family could eat, all while furthering one of humanity’s most indispensable inventions: large-scale construction of shelter. From the most modest roof that my dad once nearly tumbled off of, to Dubai’s 2,716-foot Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, nothing builds like a human.

For its size (and lack of opposable thumbs) though, Africa’s incredible social weaver surely comes close. These birds, about the size of the sparrows here in the States, come together in colonies of as many as 500 individuals to build by far the most enormous nests on Earth, at more than 2,000 pounds and 20 feet long by 13 feet wide by 7 feet thick. The structures are so big they can collapse the trees they’re built in, and so well-constructed they can last for a century, according to Gavin Leighton, a biologist at the University of Miami. Occupying as many as 100 chambers, these are quite possibly the biggest vertebrate societies centered around a single structure—outside of human beings and their skyscrapers, of course.



The social weaver with some building material. Or is that a tiny cigar. I can’t tell.

Calling the semi-arid plains of Namibia and South Africa its home, social weavers make use of several different materials, building the nest by weaving in twig after twig. Then they line the insides of the chambers with luxurious grass and feathers and, occasionally, cotton balls that Leighton accidentally drops in the field (perhaps it’s their keen sense of symbolic justice—he uses the cotton after drawing blood from the birds for genetic sampling).

The weavers will pack into the nest’s chambers three or four at a time, and when they do, the benefits of the enormous structure become clear. Winter nights here regularly dip below freezing, even down under 20 degrees Fahrenheit in the coldest places. At one point in his field work Leighton dropped thermal recorders into chambers, which weavers later that day took up residence in. “I think the nighttime temperature was 30 or 35, and the temperature inside the chamber with three or four birds in it was 70 or 75 degrees Fahrenheit,” he said. “So there’s this really huge thermal benefit to staying in these giant nests.” In the baking summer, too, the chambers provide the birds with a fairly tolerable climate both day and night. Far from the top of the nests, which bake in the sun, the chambers enjoy the shade. And the nest as a whole lags behind the ambient air temperature a bit like a swimming pool, whose waters retain the cool of the evening into the morning and the heat of the afternoon back into the night.



Social weavers build entrances to their nests at the bottom, which makes them more inaccessible to predators other than the dreaded tape-measure-handed human being.

[BlueCaliDem]

1. Amazing! And those cute little heads at the end of the vid

is just too cute!

Thank you for sharing, unhappycamper,

[mopinko]

2. monk parakeets are almost as bad.

they build huge communal nests of branches and twigs. they actually rot and heat the nests.
they have moved into chicago big time. we love them, except when they decide to tap into some warmth they find just laying around, like electrical transformer boxes. then they cause trouble.

cute like buggers, but noisy? holy hell.

you can get some weavers as pets. fun to watch.

[passiveporcupine]

7. OMG they are gorgeous

I wish they were flying around my place.

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[mopinko]

10. they make good pets. as invasives they are legal.

lots of them pop up in the little pet shops.

all mayor harold washington's fault. when they arrived, they set up shop in hyde park, and had a couple huge nests outside washington's building, the flamingo.
he decided they were good luck, and wouldnt let the park district take the nests down.
since his security detail spent most of his time in the car out front, the nest was usually guarded well.

those 5 years got them established. they are aaaall over, especially on the south side.

[shenmue]

3. Wow

Now that's an apartment.

[AlbertCat]

4. Well, what else have they got to do all day?

Amazing.... but totally believable since it is a communal nest and not a single one.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

5. These birdies

have everything figured out.

K&R

[elleng]

6. NATURE!!!

[littlemissmartypants]

8. Oh, unhappycamper. eom

[gtar100]

9. They must be republicans.

Typical right wing behavior.