nidify

From Latin nīdificō (“build a nest”), from nīdus (“nest”) + faciō (“make, do”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈnɪd.əˌfaɪ/

nidify (third-person singular simple present nidifies, present participle nidifying, simple past and past participle nidified)

1. (zoology) To make a nest.
   • 1854, Albany Hancock, "Observations on the Nidification of Gasterosteus aculeatus and Gasterosteus spinachia", The Zoologist 12: 4409

     It is only within the last few years that naturalists have clearly determined that some species of fish make nests for the reception of their spawn […] Five or six kinds are now ascertained to nidify; and of these, two belong to the genus Gasterosteus […]

   • 1997, Gert-Jan van Dijk, Ainoi, Logoi, Mythoi: Fables in Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Greek Culture, page 206

     […] it may originally have explained why dung beetles do not appear when eagles nidify; […]

• nidificate, nidulate