Sharon Beals is a San Francisco based photographer who has photographed nest and eggs specimens collected over the last two centuries at The California Academy of Sciences, The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, and The Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. While few nests are collected today, these nests and eggs are used for research, providing important information about their builder’s habitats, DNA, diseases and other survival issues.

A woman jumps on a giant fried egg art installation as part of “Hecho en Casa” (Made at home) urban artwork festival in downtown Santiago, Chile, November 8, 2016. (Photo by Pablo Sanhueza/Reuters)

Thousands of bright yellow silkworm cocoons are dried in huge clay bowls in the village of Hong Ly, northern Vietnam in July 2022. Silk fibres are produced by silkworms when they spin themselves into a cocoon on their journey to becoming a silkmoth. The ultra-soft fibres are harvested from the cocoon in their raw state by being boiled in hot water. (Photo by Prabu Mohan/Solent News)

Pfc. Remy Bouchard swaps a cigarette for an egg with a French Orphan near La Haye Du Puits, France on July 18, 1944, which was captured by American forces. The boy is only twelve years old. (Photo by Hugh Broderick/AP Photo)

Arctic treasure by Sergey Gorshkov (Russia). An arctic fox carries its egg trophy from a raid on a snow goose nest and heads for a suitable burial spot. Finalist 2017, Animal Portraits. (Photo by Sergey Gorshkov/2017 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

A woman looks at traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs “Pysanka”, installed as part of the upcoming celebrations of Easter, in central Kiev, Ukraine, April 29, 2016. A pysanka is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated with traditional Ukrainian folk designs using a wax-resist (batik) method. The word pysanka comes from the verb pysaty, “to write”, as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax. Many other eastern European ethnic groups decorate eggs using wax resist for Easter. These include the Belarusians, Bulgarians, Croats, Czechs, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Poles, Romanians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Sorbs. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

A man stands beside the Philippine flag as colorful umbrellas adorn a village hall in suburban San Juan, east of Manila, Philippines, on June 27, 2013. (Photo by Aaron Favila/Associated Press)