Bird’s sleeping place crossword

The everyday clue "Bird's sleeping place" looks simple - yet the right word shifts with the kind of bird and where it lives. Night-flying birds spend daylight hours at a roost, a quiet perch that shelters them while they sleep. Day-flying birds by contrast, often spend the night in the same structure they built for eggs and chicks - the expected answer is "nest." Crossword fans need to keep the two words apart. A roost is no more than a temporary perch - a nest is a built-to-last bowl of twigs, grass or mud. Through the year a bird may switch roosts as seasons breeding duties or the supply of safe branches change. To decide between "roost" plus "nest" the solver must weigh how the bird lives. Large birds that fish on open lakes, tiny birds that feed on lawn grubs and hawks that nest on cliff ledges each favor a different kind of night refuge. Noting those habits sharpens both the crossword grid and the solver's grasp of wildlife. Even so setters sometimes word a clue so loosely that either answer fits. When that happens the best course is to pencil both options but also let the crossing letters settle the matter. The pleasure of the puzzle lies in that moment when the stubborn blank square finally yields to the right word.