Ornithologists from the University of Oxford discovered a 2,500 year old bird’s nest on a cliff in Greenland. The nests belong to gyrfalcons – the largest species of falcon in the world – and is the oldest nest ever discovered.
They also found three other nests that are more than 1,000 years old and feathers from a bird that lived more approximately 670 years ago. The nest have been used by generations of gyrfalcons, who return on a regular basis.
Gyrfalcons are not the only birds who return to their nests year after year for thousands of years.
By carbon dating solidified stomach contents, peat moss deposits and bone and feather samples from various moulting sites, researchers have in the past shown that colonies of snow petrel have returned to the same sites for 34,000 years and adelie penguins for 44,000 years
