How did the bird nest "evolve"?

Question

This has been a major problem for me. I basically understand the hard wiring of instinct into animals but i cant figure out a good working model for how the birds nest came to be so complex. How might the ancestors of modern nesting birds have made their primitive nests? did it start out with twigs, or was it more likely to have been grass material, or some such thing? Do we have any physical fossilized evidence of primitive nests? Did certain surviving dinosaurs start the trend which passed down to modern nesting birds? What research has been done in this area? Thanks.

And please no "teh proof evolution is teh fake!!1" jargon. Thank you.

Answer 1

Well, the modern nest evolved from more basic, primitive ones, to answer your question. You are correct in that primitive birds used (most likely) grass and other things of that nature. The intent of building a nest was so the birds could perhaps either insulate their eggs more efficiently, or store their eggs in a more inaccessible location, away from predators (i.e., in a high tree branch)... or, quite possibly, both.

The reason that many (though not all) bird species build nests now days is a result of instinct. This goes back all the way to the first generations of birds who built nests. These nests, or rather, the birds who built these nests, aided in the successful reproduction of the bird(s), they served a great purpose and were more valuable biologically as an aid to evolution, compared to the birds who did not build nests. Eventually, the birds did this practice throughout the succeeding generations that it has basically become hard wired into their brains.

To answer your other questions, yes, there are many fossilized nests,here is one example of a fossilized birds nest:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1438/5407...

Also, it is quite likely that dinosaurs passed down this trait, though many scientists dispute this point.

Hoped that helped! :-7

Answer 2

some birds/early ancestors of birds decided to make a nest.  It was an advantage to their survival over birds without a nest therefore they survived and reproduced.  Birds that didnt make a nest (with some exceptions) didnt survive.

Thats the whole idea of evolution, natural selection picks out mutations (or mutations that cause a behavioral pattern as in this case) which are beneficial to survive and ones that arent beneficial are lost.  Its a struggle of survival.

Answer 3

well i think dat it started wit grass an a few twigs but the birds started nestin in trees so more twigs was used. after trial an error they figured it out. dats my opinion tho.

Answer 4

if you explore many different species of birds and see how each  of them nest, you'll begin to see a movement from simple to complex....sometimes you'll even see a stunningly brilliant!.... the point would seem to be that as nests were built, some managed to get babies raised up, some didn't... those that did, learned that THIS kind of nest pretty much guaranteed that the babies would live, and so did it again... over scads and scads of generations, adding little bits to their own designs,  eventually, each species came to 'own' a certain design that works for THEM.....

some sea birds nest right on the ground, no nest, just a depression.(they have few predators to worry about )... while some weaver birds make nests that are very complicated!...to try to foil the snakes!....some birds cheat and put their eggs in other birds' nests!.... how do you suppose they got that idea?.... and I've always been interested in reptile eggs buried in warm sands or poo piles!!!... instinct?... or learned experience that got passed on?....

evolution is a process that takes many, many generations, and many little bitty changes... that,  taken all together, can add up to bigger changes in a species....

Answer 5

Sorry i don't believe in evolution.