Occurred on August 31, 2020 / Hamilton, New Zealand
Info from Licensor: "I arrived at work one morning to find this bird trying to build a nest on a sloping exterior light. The nest material would just roll straight off and the bird had been doing this for some time as there a giant pile of leaves under the light. I felt sorry for the bird and since it was so determined to build there I decided to help. I thought if I put a shallow box platform up there it would give the stability for the nest to be built. I thought this had done the trick but the bird got a bit carried away with its backward scritching and sent the nest beginnings overboard. I then added a wedge to make it more level. This worked better but just after the nest started taking shape a strong gust of wind caught it and blew it off. So I decided it needed to be a bit roomier and have higher sides so I re-made the box. This time a successful nest was built in it and the bird has been happily nesting there. The video is snippets from over the course of the week. The bird would disappear in the afternoons and that’s when I would make changes and I was always excited to arrive the next day and see my changes accepted by the bird. She doesn’t seem to be bothered that it’s right next to the automatic entrance doors to our office and just watches us as we go by. The exterior lights don’t work so there is no fire risk. This female blackbird has gone on to lay three eggs which have just hatched."
Back