Excavator: Ground. A solitary bee (Michener, 1974; Bellman, 1995). Excavated nests illustrating the structure of clusters of brood cells supported by pillars of soil, each cluster within a cavity, have been provided by Westrich (1989) and Bellman (1995).
Halictus quadricinctus can nest in large, dense, extended aggregations covering a large area (S. Roberts & G.R. Else pers. obs., 2003)
The species will nest in warm dry areas on river bank cliffs, steep slopes of ravines, and vertical quarry walls,. Nest density can reach about 20 per square m, and sometimes up to 50 per square m (Pesenko, Banaszak et al., 2000).
Amiet et al. (2001) state that the species nests in loessic or clay soils in Switzerland.