Do you provide nesting materials? (1 Viewer)

Do you provide nesting materials?

I'm curious and interested to learn if others put out nesting materials and if so, what type and how. Am looking for suggestions.

I take an empty nylon net/mesh bag (the type that onions come in here in the U.S.) and fill it with shredded (fluffed up) cotton batting. Then, I take ten or so pieces of embroidery thread about 5" long (I guess that would be roughly 10 cm) and poke them into the resulting "ball" of batting. I then hang it on the railing of the balcony near the bird food.

This is only the second year I've done this, so perhaps the birds still need to learn it's here, but I'm not at all sure that it's successful so far.

Any ideas/suggestions welcome.

From Cornell's Lab of Ornithology website:


Nest material to offer

Ideally you should provide nest material naturally by leaving or creating wild, natural areas on your property (perhaps hidden from your neighbor's view) where plants can grow into thickets, and leaves and twigs can fall and not be raked up immediately. This untidy debris gives a variety of material for the birds to pick through when they are building nests. They may even pick through your compost pile looking for suitable nest material.

Alternatively, you can put out concentrated stashes of nest material. It can be natural materials like straw, small sticks, and twigs, or manmade materials such as yarn and string. Try putting out any combination of the following:

Dead twigs
Dead leaves
Dry grass
Yarn or string—cut into 4- to 8-inch pieces
Human or animal hair (especially horse hair)
Fur (e.g. dog or cat fur)
Sheep's wool
Feathers
Plant fluff or down (e.g. cattail fluff, cottonwood down)
Kapok, cotton batting, or other stuffing material
(NOTE from KP: I've heard from many sources that cotton batting isn't good for the same reason dryer lint isn't: it can pack down, stay wet and not provide the insulating properties other natural fibers do)
Moss
Bark strips
Pine needles
Thin strips of cloth, about 1 inch wide by 6 inches long
Shredded paper

Among the strange materials birds occasionally use in their nests are snake skins, plastic strips, cellophane, and aluminum foil. Many small birds use spider webs to glue nest material together. Swallows, phoebes, and American Robins use mud to construct their nests. You might consider creating or keeping a muddy puddle in your garden for them.

What about dryer lint? Some people include this as suitable bird nesting material. Others recommend against it because it is porous and dries out poorly if it's rained on in the nest. Still others warn that wet dryer lint dries into a hard mass, providing poor nest insulation, however this may happen only if it contains laundry detergent or fabric softener residue. More information is needed before we can recommend offering dryer lint.


How to offer nest material

Place nesting materials, such as twigs and leaves, in piles on the ground—other materials, too, if they won't blow away.

Try putting fluffy materials, hair, or fur in wire-mesh suet cages, or in string or plastic mesh bags, attached to tree trunks, fence posts, or deck railings. The birds will pull out the material through the mesh holes.

Push material into tree crevices or drape it over vegetation.

Put material into an open-topped, plastic berry basket (such as strawberries are sold in).

Some manufacturers sell spiral wire hangers especially for putting out nest material. (One type looks like a oversized honey-dipper.)

Hahahahaa For a 'googler', I sure dropped the ball on that one. :-D I'll switch the material (I had assumed that hair wouldn't work.), maybe even put out several types, and I'll work on the presentation, too. I get the feeling they're not too interested in my 2nd story gifts so I'll try harder.

Just what I needed. Thanks.

p.s. - I can see where participating in a forum like this could make me lazy. Much easier just to post a question than to actually think. ;-)

I allow natural nesting materials to lie around. The only active step I take is to make sure there is claey mud available if the weather is dry. Although there is a ditch which always runs 300m away I reckon it will save the birds a significant amount of energy. Or maybe I started doing this before I dug the ditch, and cannot drop the habit ;-)

Mike.

I have been providing natural nesting material, like Mike. Moss, twigs, dried grass etc. There have been other threads concerning cotton wool and man-made fibres. There was some debate in it, but some people were advised against it and others found it could harm the birds.

Balcony Birder said:

Hahahahaa For a 'googler', I sure dropped the ball on that one. :-D I'll switch the material (I had assumed that hair wouldn't work.), maybe even put out several types, and I'll work on the presentation, too. I get the feeling they're not too interested in my 2nd story gifts so I'll try harder.

Just what I needed. Thanks.

p.s. - I can see where participating in a forum like this could make me lazy. Much easier just to post a question than to actually think. ;-)

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Not at all, that's what BirdForum's all about -- helping each other and the wild birds we love.

Sometimes Google can be a little cryptic when you ask one question and you get over a million sites from which to choose. I just have this particular page bookmarked because we do get questions about nesting material all the time. Glad it was helpful! :t:

A Sparrowhawk killed and plucked a Collared Dove in my garden this morning so i have left the small feathers in the hope that the local Long-tailed Tits might be able to use them. Or was I just being lazy?

steve

Steve,

That sounds like a good idea to me lovely warm and cosy, hope it doesn't rain on them.

I am daft though last time a Sparrowhawk killed here last Spring, I swept the feathers up (think it was a Sparrow couldn't really tell) in case it frightened my "little ones", didn't want to put them off feeding.

The Hawks often visit here to sit in the tree outside my window say hello, preen a bit and off they go.

Ann

ps sorry can't find an idiot smiley

Yes,Brush and comb the dog,and scatter the fur outside,it is soon picked up by the birds.

christineredgate said:

Yes,Brush and comb the dog,and scatter the fur outside,it is soon picked up by the birds.

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And the cat

Mick

Katy Penland said:

(...) that's what BirdForum's all about -- helping each other and the wild birds we love. (...) Glad it was helpful! :t:

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Thanks. As a blundering newb, I feel reassured.

A CHAPLIN said:

(...) ps sorry can't find an idiot smiley

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I'm sitting here grinning ear to ear reading the helpful posts. Does that count? :-D

No it doesn't count but it has made me feel better.

Thanks

Ann

A pagan-type magazine 'round these parts suggested leaving out nesting materials as a noble 'giving something back to nature' type act, along the same lines as composting and recycling. Unfortunately their suggestions included brightly coloured threads and cotton, presumably just in case any particularly dim birds feel like advertising their nest site to predators.