It is quite easy to help the birds at nesting time with a supply of nest material. I made a couple of simple holders, although you can simply push stuff into twigs and branches etc. I had a chickadee picking some out today. I just pushed some dog brushings etc into a cage that I made. You can see how I made it, Nesting Material.
We put the lint from the dryer (as long as what was dried was all cotton or natural fibers, no nylon, polyester, etc.) out on the lawn, and the mockingbirds and other birds pick it up for their nests. We even found a sparrow's nest in a box that had been lined with the hemp that we use for securing rose canes to trellises (so that's where my hemp twine went!). I like your nest material holder--we may make a couple to hang out during nesting season. Thanks for the idea.
If you manage to get any pictures of the birds picking it up, or your nest boxes perhaps, we could use them in my Nest Box Festival next year. I started it three years ago, this was this years if you missed my posting. Festival 2015 I made another which is very easy, Material Nesting. Thank you for your post.
I'll try to get photos, Kildale, but as you know, birds are somewhat difficult to photograph doing what you want when you have a camera ready! You are welcome for the post--just wish we could contribute more photos to this forum, you, and to Derelia.
Coir is everywhere here is sw Mexico. I use it as mulch for the plants i have in containers and also to keep all the soil from bouncing out during the rainy season. Now the birds are freely helping themselves to the coco fibers for nesting. They are making a mess but i am happy to be supporting the birds in this way so i don't care about the mess. I made small little balls of the coir for them to carry off...it is light as air, but i find they will just take a few fibers at a time, whether they are small bids or large ones.
I hang little bags of dog hair out in the trees and the birds seem to be really enjoying themselves picking out beakfulls and flying off with them.
It is nice of you to help out the birds. My son showed me a bird in its nest in one of his trees today. It was so cool
This is the female of the Purple-rumped Sunbird [no such colour in females]. I see it regularly picking up fibres from my room window's plastic shade. They are plastic fibres and not organic. I was really pained and also happy to observe how they discover these kind of stronger objects. They use this material to stitch their nests using other fibres and leaves. It was not making a nest in my yard, but in the neighbour's. I kept coconut fibres and cotton in a nest-material dispenser, but they prefer this fibre!! I do not know since when they have been doing it. But I discovered this last June when I heard some noise on that plastic shade. Till then I thought they picked up only organic matter, but I had seen housecrows picking up pieces of wire during construction of a new house adjacent to ours. Those wires are used to bind steel rods. How innovative they are!
Starlings will decorate their nests with bits of colored glass and/or plastic and/or whatever to make the nest more appealing to the females. I think they prefer glass though because it glitters in the sun to catch the female's attention. I wonder if there are other birds that decorate their nests?
