Nests are like houses to birds, they take a lot of time and effort to build and the nest is where birds raise their young. Unfortunately, predators can destroy bird nests.
So, do birds mourn the loss of their nest? This article looks into it.
Birds do not mourn the loss of their nest, these animals abandon their nests when they’re done using them and if a nest is destroyed by a predator, birds will be more frightened than mournful
Table of Contents
Do birds mourn the loss of their nest?
Not all birds make nests but the birds that do make nests put quite a lot of time and effort into making them, but, funny enough, birds discard their nests quite easily when they have no use for them anymore
These tiny animals can spend up to two weeks building nests, searching for materials like moss, mud, sticks, grass, twigs, and leaves but, the animals aren’t very attached to the nests
If a bird’s nest is destroyed, the bird will become frightened, they will not be mournful of the time and energy they’ve lost.
Bird’s nests are usually destroyed by predators, if a bird’s nest is destroyed, the bird will quickly leave the scene to avoid being caught by a predator.
The reason birds make nests are for them to raise their families in, parent birds don’t live in their nests full time, only the baby birds. Once their babies have left the nest, parent birds will move on and create a new nest when they have a new clutch of eggs to raise.
That being said, birds won’t abandon their active nests without a fight, they protect them when in use, but they will abandon their nests after they’ve served their purpose.
After abandoning their nest’s many birds will go on to build a new nest when they’re ready to welcome a new clutch.
One of the reasons why they build new nests for every clutch is that they are trying to avoid predators. Only a few birds will reuse their old nests, birds like eagles, owls, and hawks will do this.
Some birds will lay their eggs in the nests of birds that have abandoned their nests.
Do birds mourn the loss of a baby?
When nests are destroyed by predators baby birds are usually killed as well. We can’t truly measure whether birds mourn the loss of their babies but we can speculate how they’re feeling from their actions.
Raising a clutch of birds is an involved and time-consuming process, if a baby bird dies, the parents will focus on raising the other babies in the nest well, not mourning their dead baby. Parent birds will quickly return to their normal day-to-day activities if a baby dies.
Rasing a clutch of baby birds can be so difficult that, in some cases, adult birds will purposely kill a baby bird if they have hatched too many to take care of. Thus, the loss of a baby may be a relief for some adult birds.
If a baby bird dies in the nest, the parent birds will bury it under the nesting material to prevent predators from attacking the rest of the family. Parent birds put the wellbeing of the family before that of the dead bird.
Parent birds will however be fiercely protective of anything or anyone that gets too close to their live chicks.
Conclusion
In conclusion, no, birds do not mourn the loss of their nest, it’s true that birds put a lot of time and effort into building a nest for their babies to grow up in, but they will abandon these nests as soon as their baby birds move out of the nest.
If a predator, or a human, destroys the nest, then the bird will be fearful rather than mournful.
If the parent bird’s babies are also killed in the nest then the adult birds will move on with their lives. Mourning their dead baby bird and changing their routine because of their loss can be detrimental to the parent bird and to the rest of the baby birds.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other baby bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Is My Baby Bird Shaking?, How To Protect Baby Birds From Crows, Do Bird Beaks Grow?, Do Mother Birds Leave Their Babies At Night?, Do Mother Birds Sit On Their Babies After They Hatch?