The heaviest bird's nest in the world is 1 meter high, 4 meters in diameter and weighs 4 tons.

Although birds yearn for the sky, they also need to build nests and lay eggs. The nests built by different birds are varied. Some, such as the turtledove's nest, just pick up a few branches and stack them together; some may not look very good on the outside, but are a different world inside, such as the magpie's nest.

The simple and extremely rough structure of the turtledove nest

What we are going to talk about today may be the heaviest bird's nest in the world. It is 1 meter high, 4 meters in diameter, and weighs 4 tons.

It is not hard to see that this nest is big enough to fit a giant eagle. What is even more bizarre is that the appearance of this bird's nest looks like a tomb.

So, what kind of bird built this nest? And why did it build it this way?

Is this big mound really a bird's nest?

Australia's strange bird nests

In your mind, where should a bird's nest be built? Most people would probably answer without hesitation in a tree, but in Australia there are many "weird bird nests" built on the ground.

It turns out that when more and more European colonists arrived in Australia, they began to wander around this continent, trying to discover something special.

You wouldn’t know until you visit, and once you visit, you will find that some places are special.

In 1770, British colonists landed on the east coast of Australia

According to people's recollections, they discovered many huge mounds of earth while strolling around. These mounds looked like graves and were scattered in various places.

But as a relatively closed primitive continent, Australia does not have so many people, let alone the dead buried in the tombs. So everyone squatted nearby, trying to find the "creatures" that built these tombs.

Huge "grave piles" can be seen everywhere in the jungle

After a long period of surveillance, people actually discovered a strange bird that often wandered in front of the "grave pile". This bird was very tall and strong, and looked very similar to a turkey.

In this case, many people had wild ideas and guessed that this strange bird was guarding the treasure in the mound. So they went forward to investigate, but they didn't expect that it was not guarding any mysterious treasure, but guarding its own "eggs".

That’s right, these mounds that look like graves are actually “nests” built by this strange bird.

The eggshell of the juvenile egg is particularly thin.

The bird that built this strange nest is called Congzhongzhi. Compared with a bird, this guy is obviously more like a chicken. Next, let's take a look at what is special about this bird and why it builds its nest in this way.

The "Baby-rearing Nest" built by Cong Zhongzhi

First, let me briefly introduce this strange bird. Its scientific name is Gnaphalium, and it is a species of the class Aves, order Galliformes, and family Gnaphalidae.

Although it belongs to the class Aves, its appearance and living habits are more like a chicken, so people mistake it for a turkey when they first see it.

Its body length is 60 to 70 centimeters, and the weight of the male bird can reach 2950 grams. Its feathers are mainly black, and the exposed skin is very bright in color, and its appearance is still remarkable.

Colorful head and neck of the bush

The Congzhongzhi likes to live in tropical rainforests or coastal areas, and is particularly common in the woods. In addition, this guy is very curious, so he is not so wary of humans approaching, which makes it easy to catch them.

This guy would wander around in the jungle when he had nothing to do, and when he was not looking for food or wandering around, he would use his strong feet to dig the ground. Obviously, those strange mounds of earth that people saw that looked like graves were the masterpieces of Congzhongzhi.

Its bird's nest is 1 meter high, 4 meters in diameter and can weigh up to 4 tons, making it a true giant in the "bird's nest world".

An early scientific drawing of the genus Congzhongzhi and its giant nest

So, did Cong Zhongzhi spend so much time and effort "digging the ground and building a house" in order to make the house protect him from wind and rain?

In our opinion, building a house is definitely for having a place to live, but Cong Zhongzhi’s house is not actually for himself to live in. Therefore, it is not appropriate to call it a “bird’s nest”, after all, this earthen mound is a single-function “child-rearing nest”.

According to the information, although Congzhongzhi looks like a chicken, it does not lie in a nest to incubate eggs like a chicken. Instead, it buries the eggs in the soil and relies on the temperature and humidity of the soil to hatch them.

Therefore, before entering the breeding stage, male bushbabies will begin to select a location to build a house. This place is often sunny and has the potential to become an "incubator".

Cong Zongzhi's father is working hard

In addition to using its strong claws to dig the soil, the bushbaby will also cover the dug pit with leaves, hay and other materials to further expand and reinforce this "nest".

Once they are completely finished, they bury their eggs in it, relying on the fermentation of rotting leaves and the heat from the ground to help the eggs hatch.

It is not difficult to see that building a nest is an innate skill of the clump-shaped damselfish. So, once the eggs are buried in it, is everything done?

Schematic diagram of the internal structure of the nest of the bushbill

The hard-working father

As we said in the previous article, people found that the larvae of the bush bell would linger around the mound, which means that they cannot just bury their eggs in it and leave them alone.

Because this incubator does not automatically adjust the temperature, the male needs to check the temperature frequently at the nest. After all, the eggs can only hatch smoothly when the temperature is around 33 degrees Celsius.

If the temperature is low, it will use its claws to dig up more soil to reinforce the nest. If the temperature is too high, it will dig up some of the covering soil to cool it down. It is not difficult to see that Cong Zhongzhi is a rare "good father" in the animal world who is dedicated to taking care of his children.

A male shrew is testing the ground temperature.

Researchers believe that male bushbabies have special temperature sensors in their bodies, which may be located in their exposed head and neck.

That’s why Cong Zongzhi frequently sticks his head into the nest. It turns out that this guy is actually a mobile “thermometer”.

In addition to keeping an eye on the temperature of the nest, the male clump-necked owl must also guard the nest until the eggs hatch to prevent others from attacking his children. This period often lasts about nine months.

Congzhongzhi's father is guarding the nest strictly

To sum up, the male bushbaby is probably one of the rare fathers in nature who is both patient and careful. Although he built this nest very ugly, it is indeed a very warm "home" for the young birds still in eggs.

It is worth mentioning that the larger the size of the bushbaby, the more it looks like an "excavator", which also means that when they build a nest, the nest will be heavier and larger.

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