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  • WHERE I WORK

Preserving pieces of history in eggshells and birds’ nests

Museum curator Douglas Russell catalogues and maintains specimens that offer a glimpse into the breeding behaviours of birds both living and extinct.
By
  1. Richa Malhotra

    1. Richa Malhotra is a freelance science writer in India.

Portrait of Douglas Russell, Senior Curator of Birds’ Eggs & Nests at the Natural History Museum, Tring. UK.

Douglas Russell is senior curator at the Natural History Museum at Tring, UK. Credit: Alecsandra Dragoi for Nature

Here at the Natural History Museum at Tring, UK, I’m in our nest collection, which numbers just over 4,000. Behind me are 67 metal cabinets with nests arranged in taxonomic order. Each nest is labelled with the date and place of collection, and the collector’s name. Next to me is a 1928 mud nest from Argentina that was made by the rufous hornero (Furnarius rufus), known for its large, globular nests that shield eggs and young from predators.

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Nature 597, 586 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02529-z

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