Nature is Weird and Birds are not Tupperware

Nature is weird. And sometimes gross.

Today we stopped by our friends’ house for a visit, and the kids—bless their sweet little hearts—decided to hold an impromptu funeral for a mourning dove that had crashed into their living room window a few days ago. They picked a quiet, shady spot under the trees for the bird’s final resting place and started digging a tiny grave with all the reverence you’d expect from feral children conducting a backyard burial.

One kid was sent to retrieve the dearly departed from the back deck where it had, uh, passed.

What they brought back to be buried?

Was not what we expected.

It was… well… something else entirely.

Somehow, in just three days, this poor bird had become a grisly storage container stuffed

full of nuts—yes, you read that right. Some other creature, for reasons known only to itself and perhaps a dark corner of the animal kingdom, had partially decapitated the mourning dove and stuffed its body cavity full of nuts.

Nuts. Inside the bird.

Didn't get a pic, I'll let you use your imagination

It was like some wild forest gremlin saw the situation and thought, “Huh… that seems like a perfectly logical place to store my snacks.”

I’ve never seen anything like it. I didn’t get close enough for a good look myself (see: gag reflex issues), but I heard all of the colorful details from both the kids and adults.  

Out of sheer curiosity (and morbid fascination), I took to Google in search of answers for what critters might use dead birds as Tupperware. I typed in various combinations of "animal uses dead bird to store nuts" and "rodent taxidermy pantry behavior." And what did I get?

It looks like there aren’t many great matches for your search.

WELL THANKS A LOT, INTERNET.

So the mystery remains: What did this? What woodland creature turns a deceased bird into a feathered snack stash? A squirrel with questionable morals? A very confused chipmunk? Some obscure type of nut-hoarding scavenger I’ve never heard of?

If you’ve ever seen this kind of thing—or have any wild guesses—drop them in the comments. Because truly, this one’s got me stumped.

And slightly disturbed.