Wired nest and its eggs

“It was in the year 1999 that my brother-in-law discovered this very unique bird’s nest built of iron wires.

“This was discovered on one of the rafters in his steel fabrication factory in Jurong. These wires were used to tie steel rods into forms where concrete was poured over it to be used in buildings. The short excess wires were cut off and just discarded
onto the floor of the factory.

“My brother-in-law thought that the birds hanging around the factory were mynas. And that one of them was smart enough to realise that these wires could be used to build their nest. Thus the great experiment began, when the smart birds started to pick up the discarded wires and weaved them into the nest.

“My apologies for the quality of the pictures as in those days they only had point and shoot 35mm film cameras, the pictures were left in his cupboard until today, when he only realised that he had these pictures when we were discussing about documenting nature’s activities with digital cameras.

“However, myna eggs are usually bluish and these eggs look more like crow eggs. After all, crows have been documented using wires to construct their nests, including clothes hangers. I did see crows using hangers as nesting material but was not able take any pictures in those days as crow culling was going on with the nest being shot off the tree.”

KC Tsang
Singapore
12th February 2016