Plastic waste has let common coots reuse nests year after year. Scientists have now used the trash layers to date how old nests are.

The 30-year-old coot nest contains a lot of plastic waste. Image credits: Auke-Florian Hiemstra A 1994 FIFA World Cup ...

Eurasian coots are round, black waterbirds with distinctive, chicken-like feet. Each year, these birds typically build new, ...

What if expiration dates could tell us more than when something goes bad? Scientists have found that dates on plastic food ...

Many different birds, including the common coot, have started incorporating human-made food and drink packaging into their nests. This allowed three biologists to reconstruct the individual ...

Coots' nests in Amsterdam are built using discarded plastic, providing a time capsule into the material's use over the past ...

“You flip through these nests like through pages of a history book, uncovering the past.” The Eurasian coot is a common bird in the Netherlands and can be found in all the canals of Amsterdam.