The Eurasion coot has been nesting in Amsterdam since the 1980s, and everyone has noticed that the usual leaves and reeds it uses for nests has been supplemented — with trash.
This year the journal Ecology published a study by scientists who retrieved a sample of the nests and found the nest to be a kind of human trash yearbook.
One nest was notable. It appeared to be about 30 years old, having been inhabited by multiple generations of coots. It contained 635 pieces of plastic, a 1994 candy wrapper, and a McDonald's McChicken container from 1996.
Scientists speculated that the plastic bits somewhat help the nests since plastic doesn't deteriorate, but would be damaging if the coots ate it.
The newer nests contained a layer of Covid-19 face masks, that could be dangerous if the birds got their big feet tangled up.
