Bryophytes as a material to build birds’ nests in Brazil.

Abstract

Birds’ nests are elaborate constructions that are built to provide a safe and secure environment for the eggs and hatchlings of birds to develop. Twigs and leaves represent common nesting materials in birds’ nests globally and with their beaks, they can carry materials, sometimes larger than the birds themselves, to construct their nests. In addition to twigs and leaves, birds also use various other materials less frequently, such as bryophytes, and in this study we examined the prevalence of bryophytes in birds’ nests in Brazil. We analyzed the nest composition of 21 birds’ nests from the Brazilian bryophyte collection at the Institute of Botany (SP Herbarium) and found that bryophytes were a widely used nesting material. The liverworts were dominant in terms of the species richness and the main structural components of the nests were mosses because they represent the main group of structurally bigger and constitutive bryophytes in the habitat in which the birds bred.