What Nesting Materials Are Safe for Birds

What Nesting Materials Are Safe for Birds

What comes to mind when you think of a bird's nest? Twigs, maybe dry leaves, maybe cattail fluff, maybe even cigarette butts. Industrious creatures, birds build their nests from any material they can get their claws on. From koala fur to bits of plastic, if the birds can make a nest out of it, they will.

For birders, these random building practices offer a fun opportunity to participate in the nesting process by providing raw materials for the birds to collect and use. The problem is that many of the things that birds find on their own or that are provided by humans are hazardous to them and their chicks. What's more, it's not always clear which things are potentially dangerous.

Take it from Jennifer Gordon, executive director of Carolina Waterfowl Rescue, a North Carolina centre that handles everything from donkeys to injured songbirds. Gordon says her team treats dozens of birds and adult chicks for hazardous nesting materials each year. Based on her experience, Gordon advises staying away from anything synthetic and saving on natural materials only. But be careful, she says, because even some natural items are not always safe for bird nests. 

John Rudin, Audubon's director of community preservation, agrees, also stressing the importance of sticking to organic options free of potentially harmful chemical ingredients. "Natural materials avoid these types of traps and it will be easier for birds to use them because they have evolved with them," he says.

Safe Materials

To help your birds build their nests successfully and provide valuable breeding energy, here are some recommendations from Rowden and Gordon for providing bird-friendly nesting materials.

Leaves and other garden waste: Keep debris and dead leaves around your garden rather than keeping your garden perfect for spring. Although this space would cost less, the birds will appreciate it (and so will your back).

Hay outside in an area that is easy for the birds to find. To increase the entertainment value, you can also display them in a suet feeder or a container of recycled berries for the birds to pick.

Grass clippings: If you mow your lawn, consider stacking your grass clippings on your lawn rather than throwing them in the garbage. However, if you do this, be sure not to use fertilizers, pesticides or other chemicals in your garden.

Native plants: A great way to make your garden bird-friendly and provide easy access to safe nesting materials is to grow native plants. For example, milkweed produces nectar that monarch butterfly larvae feed on while providing what birds use to line their nests. The larvae are also an excellent food source for young chicks. "It's a win-win," said Rudin.

materials to avoid

Human hair: According to Gordon, human hair is a triple threat to birds: it is long, thin and strong. These properties can be a deadly combination, allowing the hair to easily trap a bird's leg or wing and cut it off. "You can wrap [the hair] around your finger and cut off circulation," she says.

Most birds build some kind of nest to protect their chicks, it has many shapes and is either in the ground or in trees. dug by a woodpecker, or an elaborate pouch-like nest woven by an oriole.From plants, the bird makes a cup-shaped nest, and it may be made of clay, professionally making the inside of the nest smooth and covered with a thick layer. , build them on the ground or place them in nest boxes or tree cavities.

If your garden has safe nesting sites and suitable building materials, it will be more attractive to birds, including those that do not visit feeders.

 Providing nooks and crannies in your garden where this messy debris can accumulate provides a variety of material for birds to check out when building nests. They may even scour your compost pile for suitable nesting materials.

You can also provide concentrated caches of nesting material.

Provide any combination of the following:

Dead twigs

Dead leaves

Dry grass (make sure the grass has not been treated with pesticides)

Feathers

Down or vegetable fuzz (e.g. cattail fuzz, poplar fuzz)

Moss

Strips of bark

Pine needles

Do not provide :

plastic strips

foil

cellophane

aluminium foil

lint from the dryer

Materials that birds occasionally use in their nests include snake skin (particularly popular with crested flycatchers) and spider silk (particularly used by small birds, including hummingbirds). The latter holds the other nesting materials together while creating a small nest with sufficient stretch to accommodate growing chicks. Providing a safe environment for spiders will increase the nesting opportunities for these birds. Barn and white-fronted swallows, phoebes and robins use mud to build their nests. You might consider creating or keeping a mud puddle in your garden for them. Birds can also use plastic strips, cellophane and aluminium foil, but we advise against giving them these materials. Also, do not offer dryer lint. It may look nice and fluffy, but becomes crumbly after rain and dries out.

Provide nesting material in one of the following ways:

in piles on the ground (works well for leaves and twigs)

in clean wire mesh suet cages or net bags hung from tree trunks, fence posts or railings

pushed into tree crevices

draped over vegetation

in open berry baskets

specially designed spiral wire hangers for depositing nest material (one type looks like an oversized honey ladle)