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We have this nest in our garden that has been revealed by leaf drop, I’m struggling to identify it. It’s located about five feet high in a dense quince on the edge of our woodland area. It’s very tidy, made of very thin twigs, doesn’t have a lining that I can see and is round and 12” in diameter. It’s too well constructed for a wood pigeon, no roof so not magpie or t’owd crow. We have mistle thrushes around but I would assume that they nest high up. It is very low for what must be a largish bird. My Dad would have known but he’s been dead two years… Anyone any ideas?
A tidier-than-usual woodpigeon would be my non-expert guess. I don't think crow's nests always have a roof do they? But usually bigger/deeper than that.
I found a long-tailed tit's nest a few years ago. Spent some time watching them build it and then later in the year after it was abandoned went and had a closer look - absolutely incredible thing.
Shitehawk
or
Pigeon
I'd concur with the "above average pigeon" suggestions. And they're as common as muck just about everywhere, so there's a good chance of stumbling into a nest
I’ve got a good few wood pigeon nests and I’m familiar with their flimsy collection of twigs that appear to be just laid at angle across each other. This is different, much thinner twigs and woven into a proper circular “nest” shape - the picture doesn’t do it justice. The lowish height off the ground is also unusual for a larger bird.
We have mistle thrushes around but I would assume that they nest high up.
I wouldn't necessarily. I would expect birds such as thrushes and blackbirds to build their nests in something fairly impregnable such as dense hedgerow away from preying predators.
Also not very high which would make them vulnerable to crows and magpies. Mistle thrush sounds a good guess to me.
Baby Robin.
Shitehawk
Doubt it, they build bigger nests high up in big trees, and they keep adding to them every year, so they just get bigger and scruffier as time goes on. Anyway a shitehawk has a nearly two metre wingspan, and is 66cm long, so probably wouldn’t fit on that nest. A 30cm nest would be a bit of a squeeze…
For anyone wondering what a shitehawk is, it’s the old name for a red kite.
Coz they eat a lot of shite.
Apparently they used to be very common in London until whenever refuse collection became a thing.
Collared Dove.