Vibration firms mud nest: white-winged chough

1 of 1 Choughs in nest (all alive) / Julian Robin.. / License

The mud nest of the white-winged chough is a sturdy home high in the trees, built using a jiggled-mud construction technique.

Biomimicry Taxonomy

	Make >
	Physically assemble >
	Structure

Biomimetic Application Ideas

Quick-set materials, housing, buildings.

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[Collapse all sections] Summary

"Closely related to the magpie lark are two other Australian birds of the open forest, the apostle bird and white-winged chough. They build substantially larger nests, weighing up to five pounds, located as much as fifty feet above the ground. But even these scaled-up versions of the adobe cup with their inch-thick walls are manufactured with the same jiggled-mud strategy that seems to be universal among birds that build with wet earth. But then vibration is a key feature in the insertion of twigs and grasses into conventional nests, so this may be a bit of behavioral recycling." (Gould and Gould 2007:185)

About the inspiring organism

White-winged Chough
Corcorax melanorhamphos (Vieillot, 1817)

IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern
Habitat(s): Artificial - Aquatic, Artificial - Terrestrial, Forest, Savanna, Shrubland, Wetlands

Some organism data provided by: ITIS: The Integrated Taxonomic Information System
Organism/taxonomy data provided by:
Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2008 Annual Checklist

Bioinspired products and application ideas

Application Ideas: Quick-set materials, housing, buildings.

Industrial Sector(s) interested in this strategy: Construction, building, architecture

References

Gould, James L; Gould, Carol Grant. 2007. Animal architects: building and the evolution of intelligence. New York: Basic Books. 324 p.

Vibration firms mud nest: white-winged chough

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