Researchers in Europe Have Found Birds Making Nests From Anti-Bird Spikes on Buildings

NPR’s Scott Simon speaks with biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra about his study of bird’s nests that are made from anti-bird spikes.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

One human’s trash just might be an avian’s armoire. Urban birds have long used a wide assortment of building materials to build their nests – galvanized nails, barbed wire, even sheet music by BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music. Now a team from the Netherlands has documented a number of birds’ nests around Europe that are built from anti-bird spikes. These are strips of metal spikes that people attach to the eaves of buildings to try and deter birds from roosting there. Auke-Florian Hiemstra, a biologist at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, was the lead author of the paper and joins us now. Mr. Hiemstra, thanks so much for being with us.

AUKE-FLORIAN HIEMSTRA: Thanks so much.

SIMON: Can you describe a few of these nests for us?

HIEMSTRA: The very first nest I saw was a nest from Antwerp, in Belgium. And we also describe it in the paper as the biggest nest we found, a nest that included more than 1,500 nasty, metal, anti-bird spikes.