Science Visualized Animals

In a ‘perfect comeback,’ some birds use antibird spikes to build their nests

Some Eurasian magpies may use the spikes as they were originally intended — to ward off other birds

A photo of a bird nest made partly out of antibird spikes high up in a tree.

A Eurasian magpie nest made partly out of more than 1,500 antibird spikes sits in a sugar maple tree in Antwerp, Belgium.

Auke-Florian Hiemstra

By Luis Melecio-Zambrano

It’s the Mad Max dream of a bird’s nest: A menacing composite of metal, clay, twig and plastic.

Spotted in a sugar maple tree in Antwerp, Belgium, the gnarly architecture brims with at least 1,500 long, sharp antibird spikes pointing out from its center.