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Rufous Hornero — printable fact sheet
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Rufous Hornero
Furnarius rufus
Furnarius rufus builds the most conspicuous nest in South America: a domed oven of mud and straw, 20 to 30 cm across, weighing 3 to 5 kg, plastered onto a fence post, a lamppost, a branch or an electricity pole in plain view. A pair carries perhaps a thousand mouthfuls of mud, m…
Did you know?
- Although their impressive nests can weigh over 5 kilograms, Rufous Horneros often build them on human-made structures like telephone poles and rooftops.
- Hornero mud only works within a window of moisture — the birds build after rain, and a dry spell will halt construction for days. The name hornero comes from horno, Spanish for oven, and the ovenbird family Furnariidae is named for it, though most of the 300-odd furnariids build nothing like an oven. The interior chamber is lined with soft grass and feathers, and the entrance passage is offset so that from outside there is no line of sight to the eggs at all.
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