A decade or so ago, Mr pixxer took the photo at right. It shows a house finch making a truly remarkable attempt to pull one strand from a mop that was standing upside-down outside our garage. To be noted, then: the mop strands were, obviously, highly desirable material, in this finch's opinion.
More recently, I was looking through some old issues of a magazine called Birds & Blooms, a subscription gift from Mr pixxer’s Dad that we really didn’t read much. A sweet publication, and with some good information, but not on the level of Mr pixxer’s birding interest by that point. I was looking through to see if there was anything of interest before turning the magazines over to a local elementary school, so the beautiful photos might be turned into happy collages instead of recycled paper pulp.
In one issue, I found a suggestion that reminded me of the ambitious house finch in the photo. That was, to provide nest-building materials to birds by placing them in an open-mesh container, where the birds could pull them out. This is not at all a new idea, and I have since seen it many times online (using suet frames to hold the materials), but it was new to me then. After collecting random stuff for months whenever I noticed it, I finally put up a birdsnest-feeder last spring.
We had some old grilling containers we had never used, and I dug them up, and filled a container (intended to hold a fish) with the kinds of materials suggested by the magazine. I used some thick cotton that I had unraveled from the damaged end of a throw-rug, small ends of a red wool blanket and an ancient purple towel, and bits of dental floss, which was specifically recommended by Birds & Blooms. And one other ingredient that proved to be a big hit (see second video).
I found this a learn-as-you-go process, and my first attempt I made the pieces too long and too hard to pull. But the birds did get a bunch of stuff they apparently liked.
Mr pixxer figured out how to attach the gizmo where I wanted it, on the side of our second-floor deck, where it is easily seen from the window over the kitchen sink — and notably, where we had never seen a squirrel or a cat! We had to wait awhile, but one day Mr pixxer called me over b/c there were birds pulling the nest materials. They chose different things at different times — perhaps for building first, then later for lining? Also, we saw two different species using the materials — bushtits in late April (this is Berkeley) and the house finches in early May.
Here is a mama house finch on 3 May 2019. The video bounces in the middle b/c I rearranged the camera, but I posted it anyway b/c she is very successful in the end! (58 sec)
Here is a mama house finch on the 6th of May (30 sec). What material is she gathering here? :) (see comments)
Here is an earlier video, from the 18th of April 2019, of a bushtit gathering from the holder. Mr pixxer and I had a discussion about bushtits on a neighborhood walk this year. We passed the remains of a nest — a hanging basket sort of thing — that the bushtits built last year, and Mr pixxer said it was built by “a ton of them.” I said I doubted it was a ton, and we proceeded to calculate how many bushtits would constitute a ton (Ans: ~160,000). Video 22 sec:
What better is there to do during a shelter-in-place than offer materials for birds’ nests?
Update: important information for beginners and valuable link from Ocean Diver in the comments:
[...]
Do be careful using some materials that can be more harmful than helpful, such as long strands of anything, which entangle them.
Here’s an article posted at Dawn Chorus with tips re Do’s and Don’ts: Dawn Chorus: Cattail fluff, Coco coir & Dog fur. There are links there with additional sources of information.