Birds’ nests in Amsterdam are made up of plastic from 30 years ago

Covid-19 face masks, a chocolate wrapper from 1994 and a 30-year-old polystyrene burger box – the nests of Amsterdam’s Eurasian coots chart changes to consumer society through plastic waste.

Usually, Eurasian coots (Fulica atra) build their waterside nests from scratch each year using natural, biodegradable materials like rushes, reeds and leaves. But in Amsterdam’s busy city centre, such materials are in short supply along the riverbanks. Instead, these coots rely on plastic litter to build their nests, says Auke-Florian Hiemstra at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden,…