Cal Bird was one of the greatest California fly tyers ever to spin fur and feathers on a hook, and his Bird’s Nest has become a reliable standard not just in California, but throughout the Western United States and abroad. Cal started tying back in the late 1940s and had a fly shop in San Francisco in the 1950s. He sometimes tied flies commercially to supply it.
Cal created the first Bird’s Nest in the early 1950s to fish the Truckee River, which he considered his home water. He insisted that he didn’t name the pattern after himself — rather, while fishing the Truckee he had managed to hang up an early version of the fly not just in a tree, but in a bird’s nest. He created this fly to emulate a caddis emerging from its pupal husk. Bird tied his fly with a fur body and thorax — Australian possum, in most accounts — and natural lemon wood duck flank fibers for the tail and collar that imitates wings and legs, with the collar formed by tying the wood duck feather so that its fibers encircle the hook shank, followed by a thorax of dubbing that can be picked out or tied as a hair hackle in a dubbing loop. (Hans Weilenmann has a good how-to video on YouTube.) Cal’s first Bird’s Nest didn’t have a wire rib, and he added one at the suggestion of a friend with whom he fished the Pit River and Hat Creek.
The Bird’s Nest is not so much a pattern as a general fly design, a way of combining basic ingredients to produce a buggy suggestion of a form of life, something that fish will eat. As such, it invites tyers to tweak it in ways they believe will lead to improved success on the waters they fish. Innovative California tyers Tom Peppas, Milt Jensen, Tim Fox, and Zack Thurman have all had ideas for adapting Cal Bird’s basic design, and I’ve tried my hand at it, as well.
Cal must have seen the fly that way, too — as something on which tyers could put their own stamp. Tom Peppas fished with Cal many times and remembers him as a man who took time to talk to you, just not about fishing, but also about life. Tom showed Cal his version of the Bird’s Nest one day years ago while they fished at the fish barrier on Hat Creek. Cal liked it and praised Tom for his innovative materials and tying technique.
Tom’s current version of the Bird’s Nest is the result of decades of guiding and tying — this year, Tom will be guiding for his sixtieth year. He believes that a Bird’s Nest in three colors is all you need to imitate emerging caddisflies: black, gray, and brown — dark, light, and in between. Tom ties his Bird’s Nests from size 8 to size 16, depending on what he is trying to imitate.
Tom likes natural materials. For dubbing, he likes a mix of 50 percent rabbit fur and 50 percent Australian possum. For the hackle, he prefers lemon wood duck or green-winged teal flank feathers. As Tom says, “Good materials are essential for tying good flies.”
Tom ties his Bird’s Nests sparsely on a TMC 5262 hook. He doesn’t weight the hook shank, and if he adds a bead, it’s gold. Like Cal, he spreads out the duck flank fibers evenly around the hook shank, creating a symmetrical look. Tom’s rib is extrasmall red wire.
Milt Jensen’s Bird’s Nest is different from Tom’s because it was designed for fishing still waters. Milt also ties his Bird’s Nest on a TMC 5262 hook, size 12 to 16, but he uses both natural materials and synthetics for his dubbing. Milt’s ingredients are one-third rabbit, one-third Australian possum, and one third Permatron. Permatron is just trilobal Antron. Milt’s favorite colors are black and olive. The black version has a copper rib, and the olive version has a gold rib, both in size “BR” (Brassie) Ultra Wire. Milt, too, likes using lemon wood duck and teal flank feathers. He weights his hooks, either with lead-free round wire or with a bead. For a fly to fish under an indicator, he uses the wire; for a fly to strip, he uses a bead. With wire, he weights the hook in the middle of the shank, which flips the fly over in the water, hook up, when it is dead drifted. The fly is tied sparse, with the flank feathers tied on both sides of the fly as a split wing. The beadhead stripping version is tied only in black and with a black bead and teal flank wings.
Tim Fox ties his Bird’s Nest on TMC 3761 hooks in black, olive, and brown (natural hare’s ear). For dubbing, he likes Mercer’s Buggy Nymph. He, too, ties a sparse fly. Tim likes natural flank feathers, not dyed feathers — real lemon wood duck and bronze mallard flank. The rib is size BR wire, too, gold for olive and copper for brown and for black flies.
Tim ties his version of the Bird’s Nest both with and without a bead. He likes the beaded version for nymphing and the nonbeaded version for swinging unweighted. He likes copper-colored beads, but he also ties his Bird’s Nests with red, gold, or black beads. He adds a little bling in the form of a second rib of UV Krystal Flash. Like Milt Jensen, he ties the flank feathers on both sides of the fly as a split wing. After dubbing the thorax, he pulls out the dubbing so the dubbing creates a collar around the flank feathers.
Zack Thurman’s Bird’s Nest is similar to Tim’s, but a little different. They should be similar — Tim and Zack guided, tied, and worked together for years, first at Powell’s Fly Shop in Chico, then at The Fly Shop in Redding. Zack never does anything old school. Like Tim, he puts a little bling in his flies and adds a little UV, but not in the rib — in the dubbing. Zack begins with Mercer’s Buggy Nymph Dubbing and blends in brown Hareline UV Sparkle Dubbing in the ratio of 80 percent Buggy Nymph and 20 percent the UV Sparkle. He otherwise ties his Bird’s Nest as Tim does, but on Umpqua Competition C400BL barbless jig hooks. With a tungsten bead, Zack’s fly fishes hook up, which has led to more fish being landed, because the fish are hooked in the upper lip.
My version of the Bird’s Nest is what I call Lance’s Deep Charge Bird’s Nest. It is a mixture of Tim’s and Zack’s flies, but with another twist. I use two tungsten beads on a long-shank Firehole jig hook. I tie it sparse in the same manner as Tim and with the UV Krystal Flash rib. If you want even more weight, you could add lead-free wire to the shank. This fly has saved my bacon many times while guiding. It gets down fast and stays down.
Which version is best — the original, one of these tweaks, or maybe the one you come up with yourself? It depends, of course, on where you are fishing, when, and how. Whichever you choose, and whether you fish lakes or streams, you will usually find that fish eat it.
Cal Bird’s Original Bird’s Nest

Hook: Mustad 3906, size 12 to 16
Thread: 6/0
Rib: Gold wire
Tail: Lemon wood duck flank fibers
Abdomen: Australian possum dubbing
Collar: Lemon wood duck flank
Thorax: Australian possum dubbing
Tom Peppas’s Bird’s Nest


Hook: TMC 5262, size 8 to 16
Bead: Optional gold bead to match hook size
Thread: 6/0, gray, brown, or black
Rib: Red wire, x-small
Tail: Lemon wood duck (gray or brown versions) or green-winged teal (black version)
Abdomen: 50/50 rabbit and Australian possum dubbing, gray, brown, or black
Collar: Lemon wood duck (gray or brown versions) or green-winged teal (black version)
Thorax: Dubbing, same as abdomen
Milt Jensen’s Bird’s Nest


Hook: TMC 5262, size 10 to 16
Thread: 6/0, black or olive
Bead (black version): Optional black bead to match hook size
Weight: .015-inch lead-free wire
Rib: Size BR copper wire
Tail: Teal (black version) or lemon wood duck (olive version)
Abdomen: 1/3 Antron, 1/3 rabbit, and 1/3 possum dubbing, black or olive
Wings: Teal (black version) or lemon wood duck (olive version)
Thorax: Same as abdomen
Tim Fox’s Bird’s Nest

Hook: TMC 3761, size 10 to 16
Thread: 6/0, brown or olive
Bead: Optional copper bead to match hook size
Ribs: Size BR copper wire and tan UV Krystal Flash
Tail: Lemon wood duck
Abdomen: Natural hare’s ear (brown version) or olive Mercer’s Buggy Nymph Dubbing
Wings: Lemon wood duck or bronze mallard flank
Thorax: Same as abdomen
Zack Thurman’s Bird’s Nest

Hook: Umpqua Competition C400BL barbless jig hook, size 14 to 16
Bead: Copper (brown version) or gold (olive version) tungsten to match hook size
Thread: 6/0, brown or olive
Tail: Lemon wood duck
Abdomen: Natural hare’s ear (brown version) or olive Mercer’s Buggy Nymph
Dubbing: (80 percent) and brown Ice Dub UV Dubbing (20 percent)
Rib: Size BR copper (brown version) or gold (olive version) wire
Wings: Lemon wood duck
Thorax: Same as abdomen
Lance Gray’s Deep Charge Bird’s Nest

Hook: Firehole 523, size 14
Beads: 3/32-inch copper bead and 1/8inch black bead
Thread: 6/0, brown
Rib: Size BR copper wire and tan UV Krystal Flash
Tail: Lemon wood duck
Abdomen: Natural hare’s ear Mercer’s Buggy Nymph Dubbing
Wings: Lemon wood duck
Thorax: Same as abdomen
More Perspectives on the Bird’s Nest
If I were forced to fish a single fly all season, it would certainly be a size 12 dark gray nymph. Any nymph would work, but since I’m partial to the Bird’s Nest, that’s the nymph I would use.
The Bird’s Nest can be fished any one of a million ways, looks alive underwater, and best of all, is so simple to tie that I don’t mind tossing it into snaggy places.
— Ralph Cutter, Fish Food
Stackpole Books, 2005
Bird focused on impressionism in fly design. The Bird’s Nest Nymph, a fly first fielded by Bird on the Truckee River, a stream that flows off the eastern Sierra Nevada in California, typifies his impressionistic approach to tying flies.
— Mike Valla, Founding Flies
Stackpole Books, 2013
My favorite version of the Bird’s Nest is the following unauthorized crossing of the original brown dressing and the olive varient, with an olive body and brown thorax. I tie it most often in sizes 14 and 16, and fish it most often in slow to stillwaters, the kind of tailwater and spring-creek flats and ponds or lake shallows that are loaded with scuds, Callibaetis mayfly nymphs, predacious damselfly nymphs, all of them camouflaged in olive.
— Dave Hughes, Nymphs for Streams & Stillwaters
Stackpole Books, 2009