We had a wonderful Dawn Chorus a few weeks ago hosted by giddy thing about how bird lovers can help birds in spring by putting up boxes and birdhouses. Today’s edition is a coda to that: how we can help provide birds with the loose materials to build their nests, either inside birdhouses or in the wild.
I’ve been thinking about this recently as birds have begun singing and sporting bright breeding colors, which means the season is upon us. I rarely actually see active nests around my house since they’re tucked away in thickets and woods, but I know they’re in there. For one thing, fledglings appear in my yard at a certain point and for another, I do see old nests in winter after foliage drops revealing where they were.
Optimally, birds are able to find materials in their natural surroundings, and the more diverse our yards are with shrubbery, trees and habitats the more variety and quantity of resources will be available. But inevitably, as development replaces nature, fewer of those resources are available to birds and they have to fly farther afield to obtain what they need. More competition, more energy expended — harder on the birds.
How can we help? There are various websites with ideas, such as (content.yardmap.org/...) ( www.allaboutbirds.org/...) (www.ourherbgarden.com/...) (blog.nwf.org/...). I’ve assembled some Do’s and Don’ts from those sites. The first few suggestions in each list are naturally occurring, the last few are other materials you may have access to.
Bird nests require support, insulation and camouflage.
Support materials can be:
- assorted rigid and flexible sticks
- pieces of vining stems
- dry leaves
- pine needles
- bark strips
- mud, in a bowl or small puddle
- coconut fibers (coir)
- horse hair
- old fabric scraps of natural fibers – such as cotton, wool, jute, burlap — cut into pieces no more than a few inches long or an inch wide
Insulation materials can be:
- cattail fluff
- cottonwood or milkweed down
- grass, hay or straw, or leaf mulch
- animal fur, such as dogs (untreated with flea meds)
- wool from sheep, goat, or alpaca
- cotton batting
- feathers, like from a chicken coop, non-dyed crafting feathers, or re-using contents of old down quilts/jackets etc.
Camouflage materials are more abundant and birds can likely find these for themselves, but it can’t hurt to provide some of them too.
- pieces of lichen and moss
- green material such as pine needles or sprigs of herbs or shrubs
Important Don’ts:
- Do NOT use dryer lint. It might look cozy but it absorbs water too readily and crumbles when it dries. It also might contain residues of detergent or fabric softener.
- Do NOT use any animal fur, grass or other materials that have been treated with pesticides. Shampoo or other treatments can linger in dog fur too, which are toxic to birds.
- Do NOTuse plastic, metal or nylon. Even if you’ve seen nests incorporating artificial materials it’s not good for them. For one thing it makes a nest more visible, attracting predators. For another, those materials are not good insulation.
- Do NOT use human hair, yarn or twine. Long thin tough fibers like those can get wound around necks, wings, legs, trapping adult or baby birds. I did not know this until recently, feel bad about the times I brushed my hair outside, emptying my hairbrush there. As an example of how strong human hair is: once I tried to photograph some buds on a currant branch and I pulled at a hair entangled around them to remove it from the photo. It pulled the buds right off. Human hair is like wire.
How to provide materials to the birds:
- in piles on the ground, eg. twigs, grass, leaves
- in clean wire-mesh suet cages
- in mesh bags hung on tree trunks, fence posts, or railings
- pushed into tree crevices
- draped over vegetation
- in open-topped berry baskets
- into the head of a kitchen whisk, hang it from a branch
- store-bought hangers
Whose nest is that?
I see so few with birds in them I got a book with photos and names to help match them up. It’s been cool to see nests, even after the season, to learn who was nesting in my yard over the past year. Most birds construct new nests every year and the old ones gradually fall apart in the wind and rain of winter.
Looking through the book Field Guide to Western Birds’ Nests (Peterson field guide series) it seems clear birds are very specific about the size and shape of the support materials with which they construct their nests, so the more variety we can provide the better. Insulation materials vary quite a bit, so as long as what we’re providing is safe, birds will likely be happy to use them.
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Ultimately, what we hope to see as the nesting season winds down in summer is lots of fledglings successfully hatched and raised. It’s good to do whatever we can to help them out, to mitigate the destructive impact of human-centric environments. Nest boxes and nesting materials are something we can do.
Spring is still delayed in the Pacific Northwest but I suspect my local Anna’s hummingbirds are starting to nest. Are you seeing any nesting activity where you live? Any experiences or ideas to add to this nesting topic today?
Dawn Chorus is now open for your birdy reports of the week.