¶ Bird’s Nest As A Tool
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Index Entry
Bird’s Nest As A Tool:
“directional way. Sometimes you see two birds of the same species out on the lawn, and you wonder why they seem to be fighting. What they are doing is taking positions in the trees and then making trial flights to find the nearest insect: they come together, they hit each other, they get interference, and then they spread out in their positions before the time comes to build nests. The males pick domains for their nests and sing their song, and soon the females come along. The female doesn’t just stop at the first male she comes to; she waits until she finds the right song and then she comes in. And now they both get busy and build the nest. By the time the eggs are laid in the nest, it is a beautiful insulating device; the mother bird sits on top of it making a total enclosure with high insulation; mother giving off just exactly the right amount of heat to make the egg work. They have situated the nest so that the mother bird is in good position to fly to an insect or a worm, without interference from any other bird, and to get back in time, before the egg goes below the critical heat. All in all, it is an extraordinarily well-balanced design, essential to the successful flight of birds. We have here, then, an externalized function,”
¶ Citations
- RBF in Franklin Lecture, Auburn, Ala., 1970
