Peenie Wallie: Pendant Nests

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March 1, 2010

Pendant Nests

Wendy pointed out some nests when we were driving down the hogback the other day. She has a way of doing that...of pointing out things to me that I'd generally just sort of ignore as noise in the system. She was like "I wonder what makes that nest?"

And I didn't really have an answer. But I do see a lot of these nests around the hogback. They remind me of the long, hanging, woven nests of the Oropendola birds in Peru. So I did a little research on it. It turns out that this type of nest is called a "Pendant Nest".

Whatbird indicates that the nests in question look similar to the nests made by a Bushtit or an Oriole. Apparently, we have Bushtits, Orchard Orioles, and Bullock's Orioles in Colorado. The Orioles are larger birds (about 7"-8"), whereas the Bushtit is a much smaller bird (4 1/2").

So, probably the only way to tell the difference would be from the size of the nest, or seeing the birds leaving the nests.

Update: I suspect that these are Bushtit nests, because I don't think they're big enough for an Oriole.