Making a Nest Birds lay their eggs and raise their young in nests. Like a house, the nest might shelter them from rain and wind. Most birds use plants to make nests. Great-crested flycatchers add pieces of snake skin. Ruby-throated hummingbirds fashion caterpillar silk and spider webs into a tiny nest.
Orioles use silk from milkweed pods.
Most songbirds nest in trees, shrubs, or buildings. Geese and some ducks build simple grass nests on the ground. They line the inside of the nest with down plucked from their own breasts. Female birds usually make the nest. In the case of house wrens, woodpeckers, and swallows, both parents work together.