Woman Leaves Boots Outside for a Week—Finds Nest, Mysterious Eggs Inside

A video of a woman's unexpected discovery of "precious" eggs on her porch has delighted users on TikTok.

The clip was shared by @ericatofuanglin and has had over 391,000 views since it was posted on May 18. The woman in the clip says: "I put my hiking boots on my back porch a little over a week ago. And today, I'm walking by and I notice that there's, like, junk in it.

"And if you look a little closer, there's eggs," she adds, as the camera shows five small eggs resting on a strawlike bed inside one of the shoes.

The woman says: "And what's funny is she put stuff in every single one of the shoes, until she found the right one." The camera peeks inside each shoe, which appear to be stuffed with twigs and other materials.

A caption shared with the post reads: "hiking boot surprise!!! they served me well and now they're on to their next purpose."

Bird nests are very diverse, and each species has its own unique nest style, notes NestWatch. This is a nationwide nest-monitoring program developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology of Cornell University in New York.

A December 2023 study in Nature notes: "The remarkably diverse nest designs, from simple scrapes on the ground, piles of sticks floating on the water, to intricately woven chambers hanging in trees, reflects various strategies employed by birds to optimize their reproductive success in diverse biotic and abiotic environments.

"Certain nest-building behaviors, such as placing nests high up in trees or cliff crevices, constructing dome or cavity nests, and suspending nests from drooping twigs, are believed to mitigate the risk of nest predation... nest site selection and the complexity of nest forms can reflect the learning abilities and manipulation skills of bird species," the study added.

Nests can be made from natural materials, including grass, leaves, mud, lichen and fur, or from human-made materials such as paper, plastic, and yarn. They are usually built by female birds. However, sometimes both parent birds or the male alone will build the nest, NestWatch says.

From on the ground, in trees and in burrows to on cliff sides, as well in and on human-made structures, bird nests can be found nearly anywhere.

"Some birds do not make nests at all and instead lay their eggs in a simple scrape in the ground," NestWatch says.

'So Precious'

Users on TikTok were delighted by the bird nest in the boot in the latest viral clip.

Macey McGuire posted, "Nature truly is so beautiful," and Megara Thunberg commented, "how precious."

"That is the cutest thing I've seen in a long time," wrote dgandeel.

AngelaNeedsCookies added: "when you know that tiny little lives began in your boot ... you'll never look at those boots the same way again."

Gigigirl202123 posted: "That has GOT to mean exceptionally good luck for you."

Mikayla wrote: "This happened to me last week!! I feel like it's good luck."

Newsweek has contacted the original poster via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.

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