If at first you don't succeed......

 ......try, try again...and again, and again....ad nauseum

In Arizona, a nest failure often resulted in intense competition for neighboring nests within the same flock. Sometimes the interlopers were successful at booting out the residents.  Sometimes they weren't.  When they were, the original residents were faced with their own nest-less dilemma and went off in search of a handy nest nearby to try to takeover.  When competitors weren't successful, they tried elsewhere or finally built their own nest.  Sometimes they reached an uneasy truce with the residents and joined the nests as "helpers."  But in almost every situation in which a nest was lost, the homeless pair would at least try to take over someone else's nest first.  

Not so in Portland.  Although I do see competition for neighboring nests on occasion, most pairs who have had their nest torn to shreds by a predator and the contents devoured, seem to move right into building their own real estate.  

One, rather extreme example from 2021 immediately springs to mind.  It involves a female on the Reed campus banded as RREX (roar-ex) who now holds the record for number of nests built in a single season.  We suspect she was a SY female (hatched in 2020) based on her behaviors and choice of nest sites early on....none of which served her well!  A supremely inexperienced bird perhaps.  

RREX's first nest (RD-3) was in the same place as a 2020 nest in a pine over-hanging a busy walkway on campus.  It wasn't very cryptic.  Nonetheless, she and an unbanded male (UnbM) managed to hatch a brood of chicks....which were eaten and the nest destroyed only 4 days after hatching.  Ah well.  

Just a day later, RREX and UnbM were pilfering nesting material from the remains of a neighboring nest that had also met the same fate and were well on their way building a new nest (RD-29) just a few yards from the one supplying nesting material (thrifty birds!)  in the same tree high in the lofty branches if a huge pine.  Dumb move, RREX.  Um......maybe the destroyed nest should have been a clue???

Only a few days into that rapid build, RD-29 was destroyed, likely containing eggs given that it was almost complete and RREX and her mate were ready to go, so to speak.  

Score ----  RREX 0: Predators 2

But RREX was not deterred!   On the day we found RD-29 in tatters, RREX was again building yet another nest (RD-34).  This one was built in record time, reaching an almost ready state in just a day.  It was small and shoddily put-together, but seemed to suffice because -- you guessed it -- 3 days later it was also history.  

Score --- RREX 0: Predators 3

Was RREX done yet?  One would think so.  But, no, she was wasn't.  Her 4th nest nest was found that same day.  This time it was up against a building in a small deciduous tree and was very well-concealed.  Maybe she had learned a lesson?  Nope.  Four days later, it was nothing but a lump of spiderweb, feathers, and lichen on the ground.  

Score:  RREX 0; Predators 4

At this point we were in wonder at this plucky little bird.  She seemed determined to build a nest that would survive the season, no matter how many tries she had to make.  And so that same day.....

.......we found RD-40, which progressed very rapidly.  This time she had placed the nest in one of the most least cryptic places imaginable.   It was in the top of a bush right next to the entrance to the Psychology building.  It was extremely obvious but, perhaps somewhat protected by its people-heavy location.  Or so we (and she?) hoped.  But, alas, it was not to be.  After a few inactive, but hopeful, nestwatches, I discovered a hole near the top of the nest.  Apparently predators had come in and removed the contents without destroying the nest.  It happens.  

Score:  RREX 0: Predators 5

That's a record.  I have never seen so many rebuilds, and so rapidly begun, by the same bird (we assume the same pair even).  It not only emphasized the dramatic predation rates we were seeing in Portland in 2021, it also flew in the face of my early assertion, based on Arizona birds, that failed breeders attempt a takeover if they can.  RREX apparently never did.  

So what happened to her eventually?  Well, just a day or two after I ascertained that RD-40 was toast, I did see her in the vicinity being actively chased and courted by 2 males at the same time.  So she was still a hot commodity and still interested in nesting.  There even might have might have been a Nest#6 (or even #7) somewhere.  But we will never know.     

But I do know she was still around in the fall.  I found her in a massive flock one day among many other  banded birds on Reed campus.  The next day she was the only banded bird in a flock of about 10.  They were making a leisurely loop taking in some of the nesting areas RREX had used that spring.  Could it have been RREX and her (finally) kids?  

We'll never know.