Staff at the tomb of the unknown soldier in the capital Canberra had been left scratching their heads when they began noticing the poppies disappear in early October.
But it turns out the thief was, in fact, a pigeon, who had built a colorful home near a stained glass window at the Australian War Memorial.
A maintenance worker reportedly clocked the carefully crafted nest in the Hall of Memory in late October.
The memorial told the Sydney Morning Herald that the wounded soldier symbolized the quality of ‘endurance’, and that the nest of poppies was a ‘reminder of the powerful bond between man and beast on the battlefield’.
Pigeons were used in World War Two to carry messages among the army, with some even winning medals.
The war memorial told Sydney Morning Herald that the stained glass window which was accidentally chosen by the bird commemorates the wounded soldier, which symbolizes the quality of “endurance”, and the nest of poppies nearby was a “reminder of the powerful bond between man and beast on the battlefield”.
