A Primer on Georgia Bird Nests

By Charles Seabrook

For the AJC

For many Georgia birds, June is prime nesting month. Most of our songbirds are incubating eggs or tending babies right now. Several of our year-round birds -- cardinals, bluebirds, Carolina chickadees and others -- are raising their second broods of the year and may produce a third before the season ends.

However, many of our neo-tropical songbirds -- those that nest here during spring and summer and overwinter in Latin America -- may have time for only one brood before having to head back to their winter homes. Some warbler species, for instance, will begin heading south in early July.

For some Georgia birds, the nesting season wrapped up months ago; for others, it hasn't even started. The bald eagle and great horned owl nested during the winter and their babies fledged in early spring. On the other hand, the American goldfinch may not nest until late July.

Here are some questions we often get about bird nests in Georgia:

Q: What is the smallest nest?

A: It's made by our smallest bird, the ruby-throated hummingbird. The nest, so tiny a quarter barely fits into it, is made of plant down, fibers and bud scales and is covered with greenish-gray lichens. It is attached to a small branch by spider silk.

Q: What is the largest nest?

A: The bald eagle’s, built in the crown of tall trees and consisting of branches, cornstalks and rubbish. An eagle’s nest, which may be used for several years, can be more than six feet wide and weigh more than a ton.

Q: What is the most complex nest?

A: Perhaps the most remarkable is that of the orchard oriole, a common Georgia nester. The female oriole weaves a hanging pouch nest suspended from the end of a limb 10 to 25 feet high. Famed ornithologist John James Audubon said of the orchard oriole‘s nest: “The (tough grass) filaments are twisted, passed over and under, and interwoven in such a manner as almost to defy the eye of man to follow their windings.”

Q: What is the simplest nest?

A: The nests of several species consist only of mere depressions -- “scrape nests” -- on the ground, though they are sometimes lined with grass and other material. Black and turkey vultures, nighthawks, whip-poor-wills, wild turkeys and others are ground-nesters. Many shorebird nests also are simple hollows in the sand.

Q: What birds nest in cavities?

A: More than 25 species are cavity nesters, including woodpeckers, bluebirds, titmice, nuthatches, chickadees, Carolina wrens, wood ducks, owls and others.

Q: Do all birds make a nest?

A: No. The parasitic brown-headed cowbird lays its eggs in other birds' nests.

In the sky: Summer officially begins at 1:16 p.m. on Tuesday. The first day of summer -- the summer solstice -- is the longest day of the year.

The moon will be last quarter on Thursday, rising about midnight and setting around midday, said David Dundee, astronomer with Tellus Science Museum. Venus, Mars and Jupiter are low in the east about an hour before sunrise. Saturn is high in the east at dark and is visible most of the night.