Comments on: Scrap Yarn for Bird Nests

By: karen

karen — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 02:26:49 +0000

When I get my hair cut I throw the hair in my flower beds to keep the rabbits from eating the flowers. I save dryer lint for the birds….heard that they love to line their nests with it.

By: Daria

Daria — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:10:11 +0000

The length of the scrap does not matter. It’s the fiber of the yarn that gets tangled into the bird’s tiny claws when they are feathering their nest. They can’t break away from the thread and they just hang there and die. But you don’t have to listen to what I or others have said here, you can experience it for yourself and learn that way not to use yarn scraps for birds. If you do happen to notice a bird hanging there, you can always grab a rake and pull them away from the nest that way, though they will sqawk like they are dying, but at least you will have freed them from the yarn fiber entanglement.

By: Vicky

Vicky — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:30:47 +0000

Thanks for the tip! I was a little concerned about what length was the best.

By: Vicky Lynn Toler

Vicky Lynn Toler — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:29:34 +0000

I just found your blog today and I LOVE IT! You are the best! Thanks so much for everything! Big Hugs!

By: Bunny

Bunny — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 09:36:35 +0000

Bit late, but to those of you worried about bird safety… it’s the length of some scraps that can cause problems for birds. Keep the pieces short – no longer than 6 inches, ideally around 4-5 – and the birds can and will use yarn, fibre for felting/spinning, animal hair, human hair and feathers from old pillows. I imagine it would also help to stick to single-ply yarns as well, or teasing apart the separate strands of plied yarns, since that will reduce the number of little loops that a claw could get stuck in.

If you have chunky, natural-wool yarns like merino or alpaca, you could always cut them into short pieces, like an inch or so, and pull them apart to make little fluffy pieces – the birds can use those as bedding in the nests rather than as part of the nest itself, like they do with tufts of wool from sheep in the wild.

By: crowjoy

crowjoy — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 14:28:56 +0000

Such a cute idea! Here are the nesting materials guidelines from the Cornell Lab

Dead twigs
Dead leaves
Dry grass (make sure the grass hadn’t been treated with pesticides)
Yarn or string—cut into 4- to 8-inch pieces
Human or animal hair (especially horse hair) (use short lengths—no longer than 4-6 inches long)
Pet fur (Never use fur from pets that received flea or tick treatments)
Sheep’s wool
Feathers
Plant fluff or down (e.g. cattail fluff, cottonwood down)
Kapok, cotton batting, or other stuffing material
Moss
Bark strips
Pine needles
Thin strips of cloth, about 1 inch wide by 6 inches long

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/Page.aspx?pid=1144#nesting

By: Megan

Megan — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 20:36:46 +0000

I love these ideas, now I feel bad for having thrown out my extra scraps… I use the bigger scraps to make scrap scarves, but now I have something to do with the scraps too small to use… Thanks <3

By: marilyn

marilyn — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:02:44 +0000

i too leave scraps for the birds to use…..but i do NOT leave individual threads out….i always leave small (at least 1/8 wide strips) and 1-4 long so they aren’t heavy and shouldn’t get tangled

By: Hana

Hana — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:31:11 +0000

Please do NOT put out yarn scraps to birds. I had learned last year from a person that she forever regretted, and was so sad. She warned us all in a crochet group about the danger and NOT to. One killed her pet bird with just small scraps. They can choke on, get strangled, and injured from them.

So sorry to break the good thoughts on it; I myself was thinking of doing that until I was warned, and a few others responded that they had sadly also killed without meaning to, the wild birds. (

By: Birdy

Birdy — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:56:28 +0000

Greetings!

From what I understand, the big thing is if you are going to do that, cut the pieces really short so they can’t tangle up in them.

I wish I had gotten a pic of the Texas nest that had a six-pack ring-set woven into its structure – the ultimate in recycling! (Tho’ you should be cutting those too – this bird was lucky.) Mamma-bird seemed very pleased with herself to be raising her babies in such a nest.

In my collection, there are a couple of no-longer-in-use nests made from the brush-leftovers from the households hairbrushes. It’s beautiful, the delicacy with which the nest was woven – and with no hands! I am in awe.

Bright Blessings & Good Fortune!
-Birdy