Stealing is a strategy. At least for the Hawai’i ‘Amakihi, a small bird native to the wet mountains of Hawai’i that decided gathering twigs, moss, and plant fibers from scratch is too much work when the neighbor already has everything ready. 🐦
A team from the University of California, Riverside systematically quantified this behavior for the first time: these birds plunder materials directly from nests built by others, mainly when they are located at a similar height in the trees. The theft is not planned—it’s pure opportunism—but its consequences are very real: in several cases, the victim nest ended up failing reproductively. In other words, the eggs or chicks did not survive. 🪺
The most curious part? The study also found that building their own nest from scratch is still the best long-term bet. Theft saves effort, but leaves the thief with secondhand materials… and sometimes with a nest that doesn’t last either. 😅