News Animals

Plastic ‘fossils’ help scientists reconstruct the history of bird nests

Common coot nests preserve layers of plastic dating back decades

A biologists picks out plastic from a common coot nest.

Biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra excavates a common coot nest he and colleagues collected in Amsterdam. City birds have been making their nests out of plastic waste for decades, the team's research shows.

Auke-Florian Hiemstra

By Darren Incorvaia

One man’s trash is a common coot’s treasure, at least when it comes to plastic.

In Amsterdam, the birds have been constructing nests out of plastic food wrappers, masks and other waste for at least 30 years, researchers report in the February Ecology.