Several months ago, at the end of May, I found myself engaged in a peculiar battle. While puttering around the dining room, I spotted a robin flying low past the window with plant material in its beak. Realizing it was probably nest building, I watched eagerly for its next trip back. When it did fly by, it flew directly into the two-car garage attached to my home. This got a big NOPE from me, as I close the garage door (electric) whenever I am away. So I went out to see where the pair of robins were building.
I have a two-car garage, legacy of when my parents were alive and each owned their own car. Now that they have passed on, I use only one half of the garage for my own car and the other half for storage. Peering around, I spotted the nest being built on top of the garage door-opener mechanism for the storage side. As robins tend to be messy, using mud as part of their construction, and I didn’t like the idea of leaving the garage door open all the time for their convenience, this needed to be discouraged. I really didn’t want other critters getting the idea my garage was prime real estate; like skunks, raccoons, squirrels and the occasional bear.
The simplest tactic was to just keep the garage door closed, opening it only to make grocery trips. This proved to be effective, though I’ll admit they were persistent. When I came back from one trip, one robin flew OUT of the garage when I opened the door, so it must have scooted in when I was backing out to leave. Finally they gave up. I felt bad about it, but you have to put your foot down sometimes. Once they were gone, I used a broom to sweep off what they had accumulated. It was mostly weed stems and dried grass, loosely put together, so the nest building process had only just started.
A garage-door opening mechanism is not the most unusual nesting site for a pair of birds to select. Given that we humans hog a good deal of the scenery, there’s a serious shortage of good spots for our avian neighbors to set up housekeeping. This forces birds to try to adapt to what’s available. In fact, birds will often use considerable ingenuity in picking a nesting spot.
This pair of robins selected a basketball hoop (presumably unused) for their nest.
A wind chime was just the thing for this hummingbird.
And this mallard found a flower pot to be a perfectly ducky place for her nest.
For more eye-opening, not to mention laugh-out-loud, nesting choices, the BoredPanda web site has a long list of unusual nesting sites with accompanying photos. Given how determined our feathered neighbors are, it might be worth our while to create additional sites for them. Bird houses can easily be set up. Small platforms in an area secure from squirrels, cats and other predators will no doubt be greatly appreciated. The reward? Ensuring birds and their progeny will be around for a long time to come.