{"id":303909,"date":"2026-02-26T23:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/303909\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T23:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:06:08","slug":"its-made-from-1500-tiny-white-feathers-bound-together-with-spider-silk-and-takes-up-to-3-weeks-to-construct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/303909\/","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s made from 1,500 tiny white feathers, bound together with spider silk and takes up to 3 weeks to construct"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the first birds you\u2019re likely to see gathering nest material each year is the long-tailed tit. In the UK, the female will usually be on a clutch of between eight to 12 eggs by March, or early April further north, but before that the extraordinary nest must be made.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Construction takes up to three weeks, longer than in most other small <a href=\"https:\/\/www.countryfile.com\/wildlife\/birds\/britains-best-songbirds-how-to-identify-each-species\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">songbirds<\/a>, and the male and female work as a team.<\/p>\n<p>They select a site low down in a thorny bush or hedge or hidden among the tangled stems of a rose or some other climbing plant, then start to weave an oval-shaped ball from moss, adding a small entrance near the top. <\/p>\n<p>A long-tailed tit tends to its nest in the Cotswolds, UK. Credit: Patrick Fox\/Visionhaus\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>They cover the structure in crusty grey <a href=\"https:\/\/www.countryfile.com\/wildlife\/british-lichen-guide-how-to-identify\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lichen<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/camouflage-animals-cryptic-coloration\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">camouflage<\/a>, line it with thousands of tiny white down feathers \u2013 as many as 1,500 \u2013 and bind it all together with spider silk. A masterpiece!\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the most remarkable thing about this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.countryfile.com\/wildlife\/birds\/guide-to-bird-nests\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">nest<\/a> is that it is expandable, so it bulges to accommodate the growing brood.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2121\" height=\"1414\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Long-tailed-tit-in-nest.jpeg\" alt=\"Long-tailed tit in nest\" class=\"wp-image-154547\"\/>A long-tailed tit peers out of its nest. Credit: Sandra Standbridge\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Top image: long-tailed tit nest. Credit: Jonas Hanacek\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>More wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the first birds you\u2019re likely to see gathering nest material each year is the long-tailed tit.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-303909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}