Animal Homes

Bird nests come in all shapes and sizes, crafted from an inexhaustible diversity of materials, including fur, grasses, leaves, mosses, sticks and twigs, bones, wool, mud and spider silk -- even colorful twine, bits of wire and plastic bags! Each one is a remarkable work of art, built with just a beak, for the all-important task of protecting eggs and raising young.

Finding a good base of operations is key to successfully raising a family. One must find the correct stream or tree, the correct building materials, neighbors and sometimes tenants. In the wild, every home is a unique DIY project, every head of household is a designer and engineer. Animal architecture provides remarkable insights into animal consciousness, creativity and innovation.

Animals congregate in huge colonies for many reasons. Icelandic puffins form nesting colonies of more than a million, sharing information about food and reducing the odds of individual attacks. Social spiders in Ecuador collaborate to capture enormous prey. For others, communal living provides caregiving options -- or even the opportunity to build enormous cities.