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.

Scientist Jiri Sindelar checks a ring of a Boreal owl chick outside the “Smart Nest Box”, which allows the study of birds by using mounted cameras, in a forest near the village of Mikulov, Czech Republic, June 18, 2016. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)

A goose sits atop eggs in a flower bed on the Wisconsin Ave. bridge, Friday, April 19, 2013, feathers ruffled in the cold blowing wind and snowflakes. The goose is near to the statues dedicated to Gertie the duck who made international news when she built her nest next to the same bridge in 1945 and captured the attention of Milwaukee at the end of the war. A statue commemorating “Gertie the Duck” sits on the other side of the bridge. The goose has several eggs she is sitting on. (Photo by Mike De Sisti)

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.

Gentoo penguins begin the breeding season at Edinburgh Zoo on March 1, 2011 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The zoo keepers have just installed the nest rings in the penguin enclosure. The male penguins will then collect pebbles and offer them to the females to fill nest rings with, this helps keep the eggs and chick up off the ground and is part of their courtship display. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)ю EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – MARCH 01

A goose has terrorized students at the University of Warwick, Coventry, UK, on May 22, 2013. The bird built its nest near a block of student apartments and attacks anyone who goes near the nest. (Photo by Caters News/The Grosby Group)

Starlings are seen at their nesting box in a private garden in the town of Bobruisk, Belarus, April 8, 2018. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

An endangered baby turtle hatched from its egg in its nest on the Belek coast, is trying to reach the open sea by walking along the beach in Antalya, Turkiye on August 05, 2025. In the Belek and Kizilot region, one of the largest nesting areas in the Mediterranean, many baby turtles continue to meet the sea. (Photo by Tahsin Ceylan/Anadolu via Getty Images)