Where do birds sleep? [read description]?

Question

I know, they sleep in nests, but i NEVER EVER see nests ANYWHERE. There's a billion seabulls and birds and geeses all around, and I have absolutely no idea where they could be, and if they ARE in nests, then where are the nests? Somebody straighten this out for me please, thanks.

Answer 1

The don't always sleep in their nests and if they do then they hide them where you can't see them. For example lots of birds like to nest on a cliff face so that predators can't reach them.

Gulls don't need much of a nest except when holding an egg, penguins don't bother to build a nest at all the parents hold the eggs. Gulls and other birds can also sleep on the bare beach in a rookery. Some species like robins and swallows have leg muscles that contract when relaxed and so they can sleep on a wire or a tree branch and by relaxing their claws dig in and hold on.

In winter, when the leaves fall I see a lot of old abandoned nests from swallows and robins. I know of a telephone pole that has a nest at the top full of wild parakeets.

A nest is really only needed when there is an egg, otherwise the bird can sleep anywhere that it feels safe.

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gull
"Most gulls, particularly Larus species, are ground nesting carnivores, which will take live food or scavenge opportunistically."

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris%27s_Hawk
"The habitat of Harris's Hawk is sparse woodland and semi-desert, as well as marshes (with some trees) in some parts of its range (Howell and Webb 1995), including mangrove swamps, as in parts of its South American range (Olmos & Silva e Silva, 2003) It nests in a tree and lays 2–4 eggs, incubated for 28 days to hatching."

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rookery
"A rookery is a colony of breeding animals.

The term is most commonly applied to the nesting place of birds, such as the crow and rook, a bird similar to the crow, but smaller. The term is also used to describe the breeding grounds of the penguin and seabirds in general.

A rookery may also be a place where marine mammals such as the seal, sea lion, and walrus breed, give birth, and nurse their young, such as a beach or similar location.

A turtle rookery is typically a beach where the adult female nests and buries her eggs."

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird#Resting_and_roosting
"The high metabolic rates of birds during the active part of the day is supplemented by rest at other times. Sleeping birds often utilise a type of sleep known as vigilant sleep, where periods of rest are interspersed with quick eye-opening 'peeks' allowing birds to be sensitive to disturbance and enable rapid escape from threats. It has been widely believed that swifts may sleep while flying, however this is not confirmed by experimental evidence. It is however suggested that there may be certain kinds of sleep which are possible even when in flight.

Birds do not have sweat glands and they may cool themselves by moving to shade, standing in water, panting, increasing their surface are, fluttering their throat or by using special behaviours like urohidrosis to cool themselves.

Many sleeping birds bends their heads over their backs and tuck their bills in their back feathers, others cover their beaks among their breast feathers. Many birds rest on one leg, some may pull up their legs into their feathers, especially in cold weather. Communal roosting is common, it lowers the loss of body heat and decreases the risks associated with predators. Roosting sites are often chosen with regard to thermoregulation and safety.

Perching birds have a tendon locking mechanism that helps hold on to the perch when they are asleep. Many ground birds such as quails and pheasants roost in trees. A few parrots of the genus Loriculus roost hanging upside down. Some Hummingbirds go into a nightly state of torpor with a reduction in their metabolic rates, as around a hundred other species, including owlet-nightjars, nightjars, and woodswallows; [clarify] one species, the Common Poorwill, even enters a state of hibernation."

Answer 2

Birds don't sleep in nests. Nests are for reproduction of the species - it's a place to hold the eggs and the young until they are ready to fledge. Most birds roost at night in trees. Some birds will stay on the ground like ducks and seagulls but most find high areas to land and sleep.

Answer 3

Only an incubating or brooding parent will sleep in a nest during breeding season. Birds mostly build nests to lay eggs in, not to live in. The rest of the year they will sleep in trees, scrubs, cliffs, man-made structures etc..depending on what type of bird it is. They will basically look for a relatively warm, non-drafty place and sleep until morning.

Answer 4

Birds do not sleep in nests. Do not think of nests as "bedrooms" for birds. Think of them as "nurseries" for birds. Birds lay eggs in the nest, and the baby birds stay in the nest until they are almost ready to fly. Then, in most cases, the birds leave the nest and do not return. Some species do return and use the same nest for subsequent breeding seasons, but the birds do not sleep in the nests year-round.

Some birds sleep in trees. Some sleep on the beach, or on rocks. Some huddle under man-made structures, such as bridges or the eaves of a house. Some birds sleep on the water. It depends on the species, and on what is available in their habitat.

Answer 5

Hey there! I've been suffering from sleep paralysis for about two years now. I begin to hallucinate and see terrifying demons in my room. Other times, I can sense an evil creature watching me, but I cannot see him. On several other occasions, I've watched "shows" where women kill their husbands brutally above my face, and it is as clear as day to me but I cannot move or scream or fight back against it. When I finally escape and try to drift back to sleep, I get that horrifying buzzing feeling in the back of my skull warning me that it's going to happen all over. This is what I've learned out of all of this. It occurs out of stress. Sometimes it stops for a few months, but when life becomes difficult, it returns with a vengeance. I shine a bright flashlight in my face before bed and I focus on the light for a few seconds, that definitely helps for some reason. Also, when it's occurring and you need to get out of the it, wiggle your toes and fingers and you'll slowly be able to control your body again. Just keep at it. I hope I managed to help! Good luck!