03/04/2024
From St Francis Wildlife Association
Please DO NOT offer yarn, string or human hair for birds to build nests!
Every year St. Francis Wildlife receives wild birds, both babies and adults, with this material wrapped around their feet. It can sometimes result in the bird losing its foot or entire leg from the yarn/string/hair slowly tightening and cutting off circulation .
DO NOT offer laundry dryer lint either. The lint collected in your dryer filter may seem like ideal nesting material, but it isn’t. It will soak up water and may be steeped with chemicals unhealthy for birds, such as remnants of detergent and softener.
Also a warning about offering pet fur. If your pets are treated with flea/tick/lice treatments which stay on the fur, this can be harmful to birds collecting it for nesting material. DO NOT offer pet hair that has been exposed to any chemicals.
(Thanks to Wildlife Rescue Nests for the photo and above text.)
Birds have plenty of natural materials for nest building: twigs, dried leaves, grass and flower stems, pine straw, shed snake skins, Spanish moss, lichen, etc.
The best way to help wildlife is by:
1) planting native plants that attract the native insects they eat;
2) not using chemical pesticides that actually poison their food supply; and
3) keeping your cats inside, especially during this baby season.
Thank you for caring about wildlife!
