Extended Phenotypes

Extended phenotypes are information from an animal's genes that they express in the world. For example, bird nests are objects that are somehow encoded in the avian genome. And as with niche construction, natural selection affects the structure — different kinds of birds have evolved to build different kinds of nests, after all. But in the extended phenotype perspective, that selection ultimately just works inward, to tweak the controlling information in the animal's genome.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-thoughts-of-a-spiderweb-20170523/