The birds feel at home in the Bird's Nest
Updated on 17 August 2008
Heartening news from Beijing in terms of Olympic endorsements.
The subject is so often a depressing tale of globalised big-brother billions pumped into the games to the detriment of so much that should be at the centre of sport, but no, not this time.
I can reveal, I believe exclusively, that the Bird's Nest has been endorsed, by birds. I finally got inside it today with an hour or so to spare. Yes, it's a hugely impressive venue in all sorts of ways that the designers intended. But what struck me (ever the keen birder as is our China Correspondent Lindsey Hilsum) is that the local swallows like it too.
As the thunderous PA blared out welcoming spectators on the one hand and reminding them of a vast lists of rules on the other (very Chinese I thought) the birds swooped and dipped over the discuss-throwers, quite unconcerned by sixty-odd thousand humans doing weird things, noisily.
Perhaps the divots had attracted flies. I know not. It will be my mission to try and establish if any of them have actually nested in the abundant potential sites provided by the Bird's Nest's astonishing steel structures.
So there you have it. The Bird's Nest works as a building on two key fronts. First, because it's become an instantly recognisable badge of this city, a globally recognised and loved building.
Second, and for me much more important, the birds approve of the Nest.
