Description

Crow’s Nest

By Marc Alexander from his ‘The Secret Forest’ exhibition. Crow’s Nest, oil on canvas, 40cm by 40cm, (2014).

Crow’s Nest

When Spring comes along the Cherry blossoms abound, the rain smells sweet and the birds get busy putting their nest-building skills to good use. In fact, there’s nothing more iconically spring in The Secret Forest, than watching the silhouettes of crows with bill loads of twigs dot the skies as they shuttle back and forth to their nests. These construction projects are over in the blink of an eye and soon, their bill loads of twigs will be replaced by food for their mate and, eventually, their insatiable young.

How crows make their precise nest site selection is unknown, but most commonly, nests are placed close to the trunk in a fork or on a horizontal branch in the top third of a conifer. Trees are abundant in The Secret Forest, so the nest exterior is constructed entirely from twigs pulled from live trees. After the bulk of construction is complete, the cup of the nest is lined with soft materials like grass, feathers, moss, flowers, roots, fur, etc. The fur is usually collected from dead animals, but swift crows may collect from live ones too.