Nests & NestingPicture of the Week: Prothonotary Warbler Nestbuilding

Picture of the Week: Prothonotary Warbler Nestbuilding

Prothonotary gathering nesting material. Photo by Charlie Bombaci
Photo by Charlie Bombaci, a volunteer naturalist at the Hoover Nature Preserve in Delaware County, Ohio.

A Prothonotary Warbler (PROW) gathering nesting material. Males build dummy nests of moss. The female selects the nest site and builds the rest of the nest and adds the lining. Since PROW tend to nest near water, moss is usually readily available. Some researchers speculate that moist green moss used in nests helps control temperatures and prevents dessication of eggs. (Source: Birds of North America online). Other small cavity nesters that use moss in their nests include chickadees and titmice.

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You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea itself. This is vital not only for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself—a point that seems to escape many people.
-Gerald Durrell, The Nature Conservancy


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