OK, so now we humans really have no excuse for not making a better effort to recycle: the Associated Press reported this week that a pair of common magpies in Hong Kong recently built a nest made with twig-like scraps of metal believed to have come from a nearby construction site.

The nest in a tree in the Tuen Mun district was discovered after some of the metal “twigs” fell from the nest and hit pedestrians on the sidewalk below.

According to the Apple Daily newspaper, some local officials took it upon themselves to help the birds (and, presumably, the pedestrians as well) by taping together the nest to make it a bit sturdier.

Tags: recycling