A pigeon has made a most unusual nest on an Accrington building site.

The pigeon, dubbed ‘Britain’s toughest bird’, has laid its eggs on a nest made entirely from nails and screws.

The exact location of the building site is being kept a secret, amid fears that people will flock to there and disturb the pigeon or her nest.

Staff on the building site have now been forced to stop work until the chicks hatch and are ready to fly their spiky nest.

Pigeons used to be known as ‘rock doves’, and tend to build their nests on covered building ledges that resemble cliffs – their natural habitat.

The birds tend to build their nests in places that are well-hidden and hard to find, and while pigeons have been known to nest in unusal places including railway bridges and ledges of sky scraper buildings, there appears to be no previous reported cases of a pigeon nesting on a bed of nails.

Alan Wright, from the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, said: “Pigeons do nest in urban areas and sometimes use odd things to build those nests, but I’ve never seen anything like this.

“It’s not just unusual, it’s a complete one off. When the first picture of the pigeon arrived I thought it was a hoax, but then I saw the eggs in the nest. Most people have never seen a baby pigeon, called a squab, so it is very exciting that the people working on the building site will get to watch these pigeons grow up.

“People don’t really see them because pigeons will nest on cliffs and on ledges of tall buildings. It’s amazing that they don’t all fall out and die, but they don’t.

“Pigeons are seen as a pest, a lot of people don’t like them, but this pigeon and her eggs have been left alone, so it’s a nice change to see somebody treating pigeons with a bit of respect.”

More unusual nests

  • In Basildon, Essex, a dove was nicknamed Roxanne after the famous song by Police when she built her nest in a red traffic light by a busy junction
  • Blue tits have been known to nest in wall-mounted ashtrays, below, including one family at the RSPB's Vane Farm Nature Reserve by Loch Leven in Fife - despite specialist nesting boxes being provided.
  • A pair of great tits built a nest in a traffic cone in the grounds of Holt Hall, Norfolk. The mother tit laid nine eggs in the nest, which all hatched safely.
  • Another pair of great tits made a nest in a postbox on the gate of a timber yard at Tilney St Lawrence, near King's Lynn, Norfolk.