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The birds are fighting BACK! Crows and magpies use anti bird spikes to build their nests, study finds
- Eurasian magpies have been found stealing anti-bird spikes from building roofs
- A magpie had stolen 1,500 pins to protect its nests from lurking predators
- Barbed wire and knitting needles were also among the building materials used
Roof spikes have long been used by humans to keep birds at bay.
But it seems that crows and magpies aren’t all that scared, having stolen countless sharp metal pieces to build their own fortified nests.
Experts from the Dutch Naturalis Biodiversity Center and the Natural History Museum Rotterdam have made the surprising discovery that birds use roof spikes to deter predators.
Their investigation unexpectedly began in the courtyard of a hospital in Antwerp, Belgium, where onlookers saw a bird’s nest made up of 1,500 metal spikes.
It remains unclear how the birds got hold of the quills without being injured, though MailOnline has contacted the researchers for more information.
A magpie had stolen 1,500 pins to protect their nests from lurking predators in the courtyard of a hospital in Antwerp, Belgium (pictured)
‘An impregnable fortress’, said Auke-Florian Hiemstra of Naturalis. “Because the magpies seem to use the pins exactly the same way we do: to keep other birds away from their nests.”
This Eurasian magpie nest was by no means the only example of this, with others already seen in Glasgow and Enschede in the Netherlands.
Carrion crows also showed similar behavior near Rotterdam Central Station, placing a series of prickly objects in a weeping willow tree.
While crows were seen using these sharp objects as nesting material, magpies appeared to place spikes in such a way as to dome their ‘dome’ nests.
This indicates that magpies primarily use spikes for the functional purpose of deterring weasels and other birds.
Barbed wire and even knitting needles were among the items also used by magpies to protect their nest roofs.
Even condoms and fireworks often come across Mr Hiemstra, in addition to cocaine wrappers, sunglasses and even windshield wipers.
‘It’s actually a joke,’ Mr. Hiemstra continued. “Even for me as a nest researcher, these are the craziest bird nests I’ve ever seen.”
Auke-Florian Hiemstra (photo) said: ‘Because the magpies seem to use the pins in exactly the same way as we do: to keep other birds away from their nests’
The Antwerp nest up close: a sneaky magpie stole 150 feet of anti-bird pens from nearby rooftops to protect its eggs and babies from being snatched
Mr. Hiemstra even finds condoms and fireworks in the nests of magpies, in addition to cocaine wrappers, sunglasses and even windshield wipers
Kees Moeliker, director of the museum: ‘Just when you think you’ve seen it all after half a century of natural history study, those inventive crows and magpies surprise me again.’
Antwerp’s magpie nest is now on display in Naturalis’ Live Science room in Leiden.
While birds’ lack of fear of spikes is not a new concept, experts claim their publication is the first scientific publication to articulate this.
This also comes just days after a group of European scientists discovered that 176 bird species used man-made materials to build nests.
This study, led by the University of Warsaw, showed that litter collection was especially widespread among gulls, ducks and many birds of prey in all continents except Antarctica.
“Many birds, including birds of prey, gulls and pigeons, are adapted to the city and successfully breed in cityscapes where man-made materials are readily available,” the team wrote. The conversation.
‘The extent to which birds adapt to polluted environments remains undervalued because a study like ours is only as good as the available data.’