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Some Eurasian magpies may use the spikes as they were originally intended — to ward off other birds ant termites pest control
A Eurasian magpie nest made partly out of more than 1,500 antibird spikes sits in a sugar maple tree in Antwerp, Belgium.
It’s the Mad Max dream of a bird’s nest: A menacing composite of metal, clay, twig and plastic.
Spotted in a sugar maple tree in Antwerp, Belgium, the gnarly architecture brims with at least 1,500 long, sharp antibird spikes pointing out from its center. “That is really like a bunker for birds,” says biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra. “Like this fortress which cannot be taken.”
The nest is one of five found in Europe, each one decorated with antibird spikes, Hiemstra and his colleagues report July 11 in Deinsea. The pointy strips of bird-deterrent materials normally line eaves in cities around the world. Now, they line some birds’ homes.
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