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[Rogue Yun]

My brothers and I have had real life experience hatching and raising Ostriches, Emus, Rheas, Chickens, Geese, Peafowls, and Ducks. Though I admit not ever having any peafowl eggs, I do remember we had eggs from all the other species. The only ones I remember building nest boxes for were the chickens, and that was because the raccoons in our neighborhood were a problem (Our neighbors hated our peacocks for their horrible noises).

But to get on point, shouldn't there be natural nesting where the birds just naturally find a suitable spot and build a nest?

I think they should, of course, prefer building nests in nest boxes, but If one is not present it certainly never stopped our birds.

Another pro is that we would start to see birds actually building nests in trees (which we now have stepladders to get to).

As a side tale, my brother who still keeps Ostriches said once while he was out gathering the ostrich eggs he noticed that the male ostrich kept standing in front of him each time he came to collect the eggs. He then noticed that the female was always away in a corner behind him. He learned that he had been collecting eggs from a dummy nest where the female would lay an egg or two, and then go back to its real (hidden) nest where it was incubating and hatching eggs. The two had conspired against him and "tricked him good"

[smeeprocket]

This story made me kind of sad. I mean, the ostriches are trying so hard to do what nature intends and build a family and pass on their line, that they've planned out ahead of time a way to stop their valuable eggs from being snatched away from them while they watch helplessly. The male is just as invested in this as the female, and in the end it was for nothing.

[Rogue Yun]

He let them hatch the bunch if it makes you feel any better . It was too late to turn them into omelets >.< Both he and I learned to respect ostriches a lot more though. That must have taken some thought to do something like that.

[Elagn]

Yes, this is an exelent idea, and one i would support. I have also raised all of those animals exept ostriches, emus, and rheas, and they do make their own nests. I have had peafowl eggs, and they build nests like the others. There should also be tags for where they build their nests too, IE, birds that fly, wild birds that have been tamed, especialy the smaller ones, will build them in the trees more, while often the domestic, waterfowl, flightless, and heavier birds build them on the ground. Some, like eagles, should want to build their nests on steep cliffs. This would be awesome, especialy if wild birds nested around your fortress, reproduced, some flying off, others staying to live there, and amazing if you could order your dwarves to go out and steal wild bird eggs, for incubation if possible, or just for sustanance.

[LMeire]

I like the idea, but they should probably only be able to build natural nests on soil/tree canopies, since I can't imagine there's a whole lot of building material hundreds of feet beneath the surface in a smooth marble hallway.

[Mister Always]

I like the idea, but they should probably only be able to build natural nests on soil/tree canopies, since I can't imagine there's a whole lot of building material hundreds of feet beneath the surface in a smooth marble hallway.

What about the cave swallows? I wanna see li'l cave swallows nestling in huge mushrooms.

[Dwarf4Explosives]

This makes sense. +1. Also, that ostrich was definitely a clever girl.