Rook (Corvus frugilegus)

From my car, I saw this Rook – typically one among many others – busy building a nest near the tip of a very tall conifer. For 30 minutes I watched as it tirelessly brought twig after twig to the construction site. Its dedication to the cause was inspiring. Nesting, of course, is usually colony-based with this clever but not particularly principled bird – it's as likely to steal the building materials from the nearby nests of smaller birds as it is to break them off itself.

Canon 1Ds Mk II, 1/500 sec, f/8, 400mm at IDO 200