▲

Hummingbirds are known for building tiny and luxurious nests using plant fibers, downy feathers, and animal hair, all ingeniously bound together with spider silk. Pictured is Anna's hummingbird, a species native to western coastal regions of North America.

▲

Sometimes less is more, and the white tern, known also as the fairy tern, is notable for its minimalist approach to nest building. In fact, it doesn't build a nest at all. Instead, this species lays a single egg on bare thin branches in a small fork or depression. The white tern is found across the tropical oceans of the world.

▲

This eastern South American native collects mud and manure to build a dome-shaped nest that's not too dissimilar in shape to that of a traditional wood-fired oven! No wonder, then, that this species is also called the red ovenbird.

▲

The hamerkop is a wading bird found in Africa, Madagascar, and Arabia. The species takes weeks if not months to construct several huge nests, used in rotation whether it's breeding or not.

▲

Several owl species make a habit of occupying hollowed-out trees as nesting sites. What makes the great horned owl different is that it's one of the earliest nesting birds in North America, often laying eggs weeks or even months before other raptorial birds.

▲

Found in sub-Saharan Africa, this species love to invest in real estate, building several nests per breeding season, but in fact only using one to lay eggs in. The rest serve as holiday homes.

▲

The desert regions of the southwestern United States and western Mexico is where this woodpecker species calls home. Its telltale nesting sites are excavated holes in lofty cacti.

▲

During the breeding season, the coastal trees of the Caribbean and Central America are decorated with the hanging nests of the Montezuma oropendola. There can be anywhere from 30 to 40 nests in a colony.

▲

Malleefowl are stocky ground-dwelling Australian birds about the size of a domestic chicken. They create huge nests on the ground constructed from sticks, leaves, and tree bark. Some nests can measure over 45 m (150 ft) in circumference and stand nearly a meter, or two feet, high.

▲

While some members of the weaver family are happy in their one-bed home, others create entire apartment complexes. Sociable weavers are by nature gregarious creatures and share large compound community nests, a rarity among birds. Their amazing condos can be admired across southern Africa.

▲

The bowerbird, found mostly in the tropical regions of New Guinea and northern Australia, is one of nature's great artisan nest-builders. Males construct elaborate nests decorated with colorful items such as feathers and berries to attract a mate. They are also known for their extraordinarily complex courtship and mating behavior. Pictured is a satin bowerbird.

▲

This diminutive passerine native to Eurasia, Africa, and North America is responsible for creating one of the most cleverly disguised nests in the animal kingdom. To deter predators, they make a false entrance above the true entrance which leads to a false chamber. The true nesting chamber is accessed by the parent opening a hidden flap, entering and then closing the flap shut again, the two sides sealing with sticky spider webs. How clever is that!

▲

The bee-eater is a burrowing bird. Native to Africa and Asia, with a few in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea, bee-eaters nest in colonies, laboriously digging out hollows tunneled into vertical sandy banks, often at the side of a river or in flat ground. Pictured is a nesting European bee-eater.

▲

Another weaverbird species, the southern masked weaver is especially adept at nest building, creating homes that are carefully woven using reed, palm, or grass. This particular species is resident throughout southern Africa.

▲

The national bird of the United States of America, the majestic bald eagle builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species.

▲

The Baltimore oriole, common in eastern North America as a migratory breeding bird, is noted for a nest built entirely by the female. Consisting of a tightly woven pouch of plant or animal materials, the nest is usually located on the end of a tree branch, making it difficult for large and heavy predators to access.

▲

Plovers are a widely distributed group of wading birds, all of whom nest on the ground. The little ringed plover (pictured) is typical, nesting at ground level on stones with little or no plant growth.

▲

The Atlantic puffin (pictured) and the tufted puffin nest in burrowed soil, while the nesting sites of horned puffins are rock crevices on sea cliffs. All breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands.

▲

Big, lanky-legged, and long-necked, storks nonetheless are wonderfully graceful in flight. Their nests are huge and are often returned to year after year, and subsequently reinforced with tree branches and other organic debris. The nests of the widely distributed white stork (pictured) are among the largest in the stork family.

▲

The aerial ballerinas of the bird world, many swallow species build precariously-looking mud nests close to overhead shelter in locations that are protected from both the weather and predators.

▲

Among the most graceful and beloved bird species, swans build nests that are on the ground near water and measure about 1 m (3 ft) across.

▲

Woodpeckers rank among the few species of bird capable of excavating their own nesting and roosting cavities in wood. Pictured is a great spotted woodpecker feeding its young.

Sources: (Sage Journals) (Duke Farms) (Mongabay)(Birdwatching Daily)

▲

A member of the family of monarch flycatchers found in southern and south-eastern Asia, the black-naped monarch constructs a tidy cup nest placed in a fork and lined with filaments of spider webbing and horse-hair fungus, which is known to produce antibiotics that may benefit the birds by protecting the young from infection.

▲

Sitting pretty in its neat nest somewhere in the humid rain forests around the Ecuador-Peru border is this orange throated tanager. As a species it is considered threatened.

▲

These strikingly handsome birds, found across Africa, Asia, and Europe, also nest in holes in trees, and sometimes even walls. Pictured arriving with lunch for its young is a Eurasian hoopoe.

▲

The brown pelican (pictured) will nest on the ground when no suitable trees are available.

▲

A stocky, chicken-like bird, the threatened maleo is endemic to Sulawesi and the nearby smaller island of Buton in Indonesia. It is quite unique in that the female of the species lays and covers a single egg in a deep hole in sand or soil and allows the incubation to take place through solar or volcanic heating. After the egg has been securely buried, the parents depart and never return, leaving the maleo chick to fend for itself.

▲

One of the smallest passerines in North America, the American bushtit is big on nest-building. The species creates an elaborate and cozy pendant nest of moss and lichen assembled with spider silk and lined with feathers.

▲

As its names implies, the sand martin nests in tunneled holes in sheer sandy hills and banks, generally located near large bodies of water. The species, which includes the European sand martin (pictured), enjoys a global range.

▲

So named for their ability to weave elaborate nests from thin strands of leaf fiber, weaverbirds are masters of their craft. Pictured is a baya weaver colony. These birds are found across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

▲

A bird nest can be one of the most elaborately constructed abodes in the animal kingdom, a cozy cup woven with leaf fiber and spider silk and lined with soft fluffy down, moss, and lichen. Or it can be a simple hole in the sand! Nests can huge, and tiny. They can be found hidden away in hollowed-out trees, or perched on open windswept sea cliffs. Indeed, the place birds call home is one of the most fascinating examples of real estate in the natural world.

Click through and find out which birds best feather their nest.