Nesting Time

Dyed Easter eggs are no match for the painted eggs on exhibit at the new C.E. Blevins Avian Learning Center at Chattanooga’s Reflection Riding Arboretum. Thirty bird nests hold eggs so realistic you’d never guess these replicas were made from clay and PCV molds. 

Artist C.E. Blevins, who passed away in 2012, spent years learning how to create intricate egg replicas, with each hand-painted egg designed to match the size and shape of an individual bird species, from the ruby-throated hummingbird to the wild turkey. All together, the array of eggs demonstrates relationships between birds—and it also creates the world’s largest collection of species-specific egg replicas.

“He made these because he knew how fragile real eggs are, and he also knew that birds have been negatively impacted by people collecting their eggs,” explains Joel Blevins, C.E. Blevins’ son, in a YouTube video about his father’s legacy. 

Blevins spent years building the egg replicas at the C.E. Blevins Avian Learning Center in Cohutta, Georgia, which recently relocated to Chattanooga’s Reflection Riding Arboretum, a 317-acre park on the western slope of Lookout Mountain. At their new home in Chattanooga, interpretive signs give insights on nesting habits of 30 local bird species.

Admission is $7 for seniors and children and $10 for adults. Learn more (and watch a video showing how these egg replicas are made) at reflectionriding.org.