Make a Bird's Nest Activity

This make a bird’s nest activity is a simple science and discovery idea that offers lots of oppertunities for open-ended play and learning.

It uses easy to find materials, takes only a few minutes to set up, and keeps kids genuinely engaged and learning all about birds and their nests.

Find out what to collect, how to set it up, and what children get out of it.

Ages:

2 years +

Learning Areas:

science, sensory play

Set up:

easy, 5 mins

The kids I’ve been working with spotted a birds nest, high up in a tree the other day. That simple sighting sparked an interest in nests and birds that I really wanted to build on.

Since we couldn’t take the nest out of the tree (even if we could have reached it, everyone agreed that taking the nest was a bad idea) we came up with the idea of building our own bird’s nests!

Setting Up the Build a Bird’s Nest Project

We set up our bird’s nest making project on a small table and allowed the kids to explore and experiment with the materials and ideas.

Supplies.

Have the kids help you collect items that they think will make a good bird’s nest.

We looked at some pictures of bird’s nests and talked about what they were made of, and what similar things we might be able to find outside or in the craft cupboard.

Here are some items that you could use:

Dry grass, straw, or hay
Small sticks and twigs
Leaves
Feathers
Shredded paper
Wool or String
Pebbles
Eggs
Small bowls or baskets.

The kids had lots of fun cutting and collecting items from outside for their nests, once we had a selection of items I set up the project area.

We used small wooden bowls to build our nests in and we had some large wooden eggs that were great, but the kids also used pebbles as smaller eggs.

I collected and printed some images of interesting nests to display as inspiration and reference, and because we didn’t have any bird figurines I printed and cut out some bird images so we had some birds to sit on our nests.

If you’d like the nest and bird images we used you can find the Birds and Nests Image Pack as a $1 deal in the shop.

The kids had a great time building and rebuilding nests working on those fine motor skills, as they talked about the different kinds of birds and their nests. Using the photos of real nests as references they were also practicing lots of observation and problem solving skills as well as learning some new science concepts.

Once the interest in just nest building died down I repurposed some of the materials to make a bird’s nest sensory bin which led to lots more imaginative play, nest building and learning.

Tips and Extension Ideas.

Allow your children lots of time to explore and experiment, talk with them about birds and nests allowing them to hear and use new words and scientific phrases such as ‘oviporous’ which means ‘egg laying’.
Talk about what other animals make nests. Do they also lay eggs? What do their nests look like?
Add playdough or clay to make a more permanent nest craft – line the bowl with cling wrap before you start building so the nest is easy to remove when done.
Add the nests you have built to a science or nature table about birds – adding books, images, and other items as you learn more about them.
Older kids can draw a picture of the nest they have built and perhaps even write a description or a story about the nest. (There is a ‘My Nest’ drawing and writing page in the Birds and Nests Image pack.

Birds and Nests Image Pack

To make this activity more engaging and informative, and easy to set up, I created a set of birds and nests images to use.

This set includes 12 bird’s nest photos at half-page size, 9 bird images for displays or hands-on props, and a bonus “My Bird’s Nest” recording page for kids to draw and write about nests.

It’s currently a $1 deal in the picklebums playful printable shop!