Few people would feel up to the task of constructing a home from scratch, using only the materials they could carry. But birds possess an innate ability to build delicate nests from grass, twigs, or mud that regularly pass the most difficult test for any species: they cradle and protect the next generation.

Photographer and author Sharon Beals visited the California Academy of Sciences, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley, and the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology to photograph the nests featured in Nests: Fifty Nests and the Birds that Built Them (Chronicle Books, March 2011). This slideshow features some of our favorites.

Photography by Sharon Beals
Illustrations by Laurie Wigham
Captions by Della Watson