Sociable Weavers (Philetairus socius) are bird versions of ants
They create massive communal nests, the largest structures built by birds. The nests last for decades, or even centuries. up to 200 adult birds and their offspring can live in 1 single nest. They even help to raise each others young!
Know more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociable_Weaver
Watch video:
Social weaver birds nest in a tree in Africa - David Attenborough - BBC wildlife
Whoah, that's an astounding picture.
ReplyDeleteYes they have mad skills when it comes to build nests =)
ReplyDeleteWhen I rebuilt my garage at my old house the entire eaves were packed solidly with decades of wasp nests, interdigitated with each other, and it was really creepy. This picture gives me a similar unsettling frisson, mostly because it reminds me of them.
ReplyDeleteThis is funny. I was just explaining to someone that the altering of our environment is just as natural as any other species in nature... such as bird nests (What a spectacular example!) and large subterranean ant colonies in Africa. We just do things on a much bigger scale do to ours opposable thumbs and large, complex, pattern recognizing, dot connecting brains.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they have engineers and constructors..etc? =)
ReplyDeleteWow... I have seen this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaver_bird and their nest but never seen sociable weaver bird and their nesting. Fascinating world yet to be discovered and learn
ReplyDeleteFlat society: they're all engineers. (That's one interesting thing about bees: there are leaders and different functions that bees take as they age. In other eusocial societies, as far as I know, there usually isn't any sort of hierarchy or different roles. But that gets complicated in life forms that are transitional between eusocial and actual new life forms, like the portugese man-o-war jellyfish.bluebottle, where all the individual cells are actually individual animals, who just happen to be working together to make an organism for a while.)
ReplyDeleteInteresting info John Bump , thanks!
ReplyDelete