Garden Notes
A hummingbird nest’s secret ingredient? Spider silk.
A tiny nest has to hold together while its chicks get bigger. Spider silk can help it do both: binding the nest’s materials and allowing the cup to stretch as the young grow.
Hummingbird chicks in a nest. Photo: NPS/Hannah Schwalbe.
Soft fibers, stretchy binding
Take Anna’s Hummingbirds. The female builds with plant down and spider webs, shaping the cup around her body as she sits inside. Cornell Lab describes a nest about 1 inch tall and 1½ inches across. The outside may be decorated with lichen or moss.
A useful garden takeaway
You don’t need to assemble a nest-building kit. Leaving a corner with fallen leaves and twigs gives birds natural materials to choose from. Cornell also recommends a safe environment for spiders, whose silk can become a building resource for small birds.
Skip dryer lint. It may look fluffy, but it becomes crumbly after getting wet and drying.
Our collection brings the color and character of garden life to mugs, prints and other everyday objects.
Sources
Photo: Hummingbird chicks in a nest. NPS/Hannah Schwalbe, Joshua Tree National Park. Public domain. Resized for layout. Original photograph.