Have you ever had the privilege of watching a bird build its nest?
Bird nests comes in different shapes and sizes and can be built from a wide variety of materials, but whatever the type, there are some lessons we can note from the bird’s nest building activity.
I present the lessons as Ps’
Purpose: The bird which commences nest building activity has a purpose in mind, a reason for building. We might consider this exercise to be driven by instinct, yes. It may well be instinctive, and it is certainly natural for maturing animals to look towards continuation of the species. The nest is built to house the infant birds of the next generation, offer them safety and protection from the elements of weather and other possible destructive forces, so that they develop as nature meant them to.
Plan: Maybe some aspects of the plan are also instinctive. Does the bird build with grass, tree leaves, mud, tar, or something else. Whatever the builder needs, it has to survey surroundings, and sometimes travel some distance to get its building stuff. Which pieces of straw will do the job? The bird which needs thread from the spider’s web needs to seek those out; and it must determine which silk threads can be used at particular phase of building. What about timing? Is season or time of year critical to the exercise? It certainly recognises when the mission is accomplished which means that the builder worked according to a plan.
Perseverance: Building takes time and effort. Jamaicans say ‘one one cocoa full basket’. Oh it may take a few hundred fibres and countless scraps of material to complete the project; but as each piece is added, little by little, the job gets done. The patience of perseverance keeps the builder going. The bird needs drive and it has to keep the drive on while engaged in this obviously tiring task- or tasks, I should say, since there are different jobs that form the entire project.
Pride: Why do I add this? Am I writing my perspective into this? Maybe. If I were a bird, I would certainly be proud to look at the finished task. Along the way, I’d want to know that the raw materials are used correctly to give maximum desired effect- whether that is a proper seal or camouflage. Maybe because I looking back with pride on what I’ve done , for example, in some craft work, I think that the bird would instinctively do the same.
Pizazz: Ok. Maybe I’m making this up. Maybe not. But it’s simply remarkable how impressive nest building can seem to be. Watching National Geographic and viewing the assortment of nest types that birds take time to build, I simply end up saying Wow! or Aaw!
In the view below, you see that my bird nest has another opening. Two entrances or exits or one of each! Wow! I peeped in to see if there were two chambers, but I was buzzed off by the territorial proprietor. After all, the bird’s nest is her castle and I don’t like being too intrusive when God’s creatures are doing their thing. Not that I was afraid to get my eyes pecked. Just that I was satisfied to let my fascination with this aerial two room house in the bougainvillea take second place to what might have been instinct at work (or play)
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