Question on nesting material

We recently purchased a gadget (open-work metal bell with hook for hanging) designed to fill with nesting material for the many birds who come to our feeders. The vendor suggests filling it with dryer lint, cotton, human or pet hair (we can supply lots of these!), and pieces of string. Can anyone advise what species use string in building their nests, and what type and length of string is best to provide? Many thanks in advance-
Ruth

I'd be interested in hearing more about that, too. I keep trying to leave my labradoodle's fluffy hair out for the birds, because I've heard that they need nesting materials, but no one ever takes me up on my offers! Yet someone told me that birds practically lie in wait every time she combs her Malamute, for the excess hair!

Me too Greenhouse gal, I've put the dryer lint and dog hair out among my plants and out in the open and not one bird has touched any of it.

Thanks for asking Spartacusaby. Maybe someone will have the answer.

I use horse hair. The local no-kill shelter saves it for me. The birds empty the container, approximately one quart size, in a couple of days.

Last year, almost all of the nests we found had horse hair in or on them. One nest had hair neatly woven around the outside as well.

Cat hair was always a favorite too, until I became allergic to it.

They do like string. I cut mine into 4 to 6" pieces for them. They also like small twigs, straw, dead grass and cotton batting.

At least the birds in my backyard preferred all of the above last year.

I've left out nesting materials also for the birds and put it in a suet feeder. I don't know if they have ever used it since there seems to be a lot leftover!! I do see them going after dried grass and other natural materials though. I also have seen the Titmouse ripping the coconut liners from the planters...that is a hoot to watch!!

GG...cool idea about the horsehair!

According to what I have read it isn't advised to use dryer lint. Here is a link that has some really good info scroll down to Nesting Material..it is a good read http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1144 .

I bought a bag of nesting material at WBU last year and nobody touched it. I think they prefer the natural stuff that is plentiful where I live. Dryer lint is very bad...do not use it!

Dryer lint is generally not a good idea for nesting material. This from the Lansing Wildbird Unlimited store website: "I’d like to say that we DO NOT recommend dryer lint. There may be perfumes and soap residue, but more important it isn’t a good nest building material. Lint hardens after getting wet providing a poor nest for baby birds."

Carla

Agree, absolutely NOT dryer lint.

Animal hair (any sort; clipped into short lengths if long), moss, and hay are all good.

Resin

Thanks, everyone: very helpful! I'll definitely forget the dryer lint, though we do use fragrance-free laundry soap, and a minimum of that, based on family allergies. The nests I've seen on the property use grass clippings, twigs, straw, bark, etc.; I'm just hoping to supplement and also to recycle what would otherwise be trash (like all the fur I brush out of one of our cats!). All suggestions welcome, and thanks again-
Ruth

I'm so glad to find this thread on the topic of nest-constructing materials. I'm interested in learning more and share with what little experience I have.

Pheobes and Brown-crowned Nuthatch will tug on the fluffy materials on the end of my rope (nylon) presummably looking for nesting materials. Moss is another material I saw Pheobes collected. I can see the dryer lints potential problem as well.

I'm putting out more birds housing this spring. At this time, thus far I've noticed Carolina Wren already worked on one of their "homes" in my garden.

These are new "houses" that I'm working on their placement next.

Lily Love, I adore that little red one. Did you make that?

GG. No I didn't. Hurry up to WallyWorld. lol, that is where I found the red feeder. The only thing about it was that I plan on changing out the bio-degradable robe on the feeder to a more studier wire of sorts. Hope some birds will find them attractive enough to call it home.

Thanks Lily. I will be on my way there tomorrow. That is really great. I sometimes use really short bungie cords to hand my feeders and houses. They are really weather resistant and do not rot.

Just filled the horsehair container and I set up the Wingscapes camera to see if I can get any pictures to share with folks on the Forum. The Titmice just love horsehair.

I put cotton in the suet feeder this weekend and within an hour had a chickadee coming to get it. I got it from a pet store. It's in long pieces but I'd think one could use cotton balls as well as long as they're really cotton. I'm new to birding so I'm not sure.

Lily, I'm headed out to Wally World tomorrow to see if I can get a feeder like your red one. I did read that birdhouses should never have perches on the front though as predators could use them.

Leslie

Leslie, thank you for sharing such helpful information on the perch. I'll see if I can come up with some creative idea to take it off if I can. I've put the two bird houses close together like this. May not be a good idea if birds competes with one another? It has been over a week. No taker yet.

I want to put out nesting material for a Bluebird pair, any specific suggestions? Also, anything specific for Hummingbird nests?

gaze, I've seen nesting materials labeled for hummers that look like cotton fibers in a "sandwich cage". Kind of like a flat suet cage. You can see them here:

Duncraft
http://www.duncraft.com/Hummer-Helper-Cage-Nesting-Material--P2681C194.aspx

Wild Birds Unlimited
http://www.shopwbu.com/products/productdetail/Hummer+Helper+Nesting+Material/part_number=1599/567.0.1.1.25796.0.0.0.0?

Welcome Leslie!

The nesting material should always be in short piece's so the chicks legs don't become tangled in it.

Thanks Leslie,
My thought was to put nesting fibers/grass/whatever in a suet cage. Another poster reccommended horse hair. I think I'm going to work with cat hair and maybe move into a different media that will work for BBs and HMS

Gazer, the bluebirds who sometimes use our nesting box make their nest exclusively from small twigs and dried grass. If you're a lazy lawn mower like we are, there are always lots of grass clippings available for them (lol). Even if I haven't yet seen the parents, I can always tell when the nest in our box was built by bluebirds; it's so perfectly round and each twig and grass strand is perfectly in place. They must be the compulsives in the songbird world....

Do you all put your bluebird houses on poles or is it OK to put them on a tree?

We have some on fence posts but we also have some on poles with predator guards. I think they prefer to be out in the open and might not be as attracted to a house on a tree.

Deciding to host Blue Birds takes a serious commitment. This is a great article to get you started. After witnessing at a neighbors what predators can do to defenseless babies I decided it wasn't for me.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1093/

Thank you so much! I already have bluebirds on the property and want to treat them right. I'll get the poles.

Our house is also on a pole with baffle. Some years ago, we tried mounting another house on the privacy fence; and though birds did use it, bluebirds never did so. They really seem to want and need open space. We've been fortunate here in NC, but when we lived in VA we had a serious predation problem with English house sparrows. Several times they moved in and killed the bluebird nestlings; once they even killed the female bluebird in the house. After that, we removed the house; didn't want to keep setting the bluebirds up for attack. I have no fondness for the person who imported the house sparrow and other English species; he did the native songbirds a huge disservice.

I've seen two males and a female at the same time. I don't know how many we have. I got two houses. I'm glad I read this before mounting them. The owner of my local Wild Birds Unlimited had told me a tree was ok.

I'm relatively new to hosting various birds... Last year I witnessed several natural bird nests around the garden and become more and more interested. This is why it's so wonderful being part of DG family. We can learn from one another's experiences. Thank Nan, Rose Pelle and countless others who post here at our forum.

We've had some bluebirds flitting around by the river's edge at the front of our house this winter, and we often have them nest. You can buy excluders for invasive species; I know that works for martin houses but I'm not sure they fit bluebird houses, too.

Lily...thank you, that is nice of you to say.

Since I say my first Blue 3 years ago I wanted to host them very badly. I was lucky that I had this forum and all the information provided by others to help in this journey. I was like you LaLamb...I put my first box on a tree!! Thankfully it didn't stay there very long after learning the errors of my way!

LaLamb...good for you on having 2 nestboxes!! Another mistake I made when I first put up my boxes was having them too close and also not placing them where they couldn't be seen by each other. My first year the poor Blues felt they had to defend both boxes. Now they are really spread out and the nesting Blues don't bother with the others.

I would love to have Purple Martins but I am hoping that DH will take that journey!!

Hope you have luck with your houses Leslie! SOund like your WBU person need to come here and get educated! LOL

Your so sweet Lily....

I have thought about martins too...we have lots of them here. I usually see them down by the lake.

I understand martins eat mosquitoes. Has anyone noticed having less of them bite as a result of martins around?

OK. I've ordered two metal mounting poles which are about 1" in diameter. Do I still need the baffle?

Yes, to keep predators from climbing up the pole. Otherwise they will climb the pole and get into the boxes and kill the babies.

Do you have House Sparrows...if so you will need a spooker to put on the box too. It does get complicated!

This message was edited Mar 31, 2010 10:22 AM

Here is a page on Sparrow Spookers http://www.sialis.org/sparrowspooker.htm

You put them up after egg laying has begun.

Lots more info on this site for BB's and other cavity nesters. :-)

What NOT to buy. I recently bought my first BB nesting box from a beautiful store called Wild Bird Center. They sold me a contraption called "The Guardian", which is a plastic 2.5 inch tube which fits over the nest box opening. It is designed to keep predator arms from reaching the babies. I'm sure it performs that function, but the BBs don't like it and may abandon a nest because of it. I had a pair of BBs on my nest box almost immediately after I put it up, but they didn't enter, and seemed to struggle with the Guardian. I did a little research and took that thing off. The pair showed up shortly thereafter and they both went inside. No nesting yet, but they were really staking out the territory this evening.

LOL, gazer, I made the same mistake a few years back - with the same results. It's one of those wonderful ideas that just don't live up to their promise; keeps out both predators and bluebirds... Hope you'll soon have a nest in progress.

Thank you Pelle and GG for the helpful info. GG, I've been wanting to return to this Bird store in a nearby town. They seem to have everything for birds. I'm learning helpful info. to be a better host for my feathered friends out there for the future.

Has anyone had luck with the peek-a-boo boxes you put up outside a window?