Upcycled: Bird Nesting Material Holder

I was recently inspired by this House Digest article on using an old kitchen whisk to offer birds nesting materials with this spring. Such a great way to repurpose this common utensil, but be it as I only have one whisk which is used often in my kitchen, I decided the next time I was out thrifting I would keep an eye out, and sure enough it didn’t long at all to source an old metal whisk!

It also got me thinking what else could be upcycled for this purpose? I remembered seeing somewhere once of using a suet feeder cage, and then I had also found this antique wire grill contraption (picture above) while thrifting as well I thought could maybe work to hold twigs and grasses decently. I also think some scrap chicken wire rolled into a tube or ball could work too as a good nesting material holder if mindful of any sharp edges and then simply use a bit of twine to hang it up with.

Now what to fill the upcycled holder with? Well, depends on the birds that are nesting near you! But no matter what bird species you are looking to help out, I strongly recommend only sourcing natural and fully biodegradable materials from the landscape nearby, and staying away from all strings, pet hair, or human hair which can present risks to young nestlings. String and human hair can entangle and kill baby birds, and pet hair may carry harmful chemicals if you treat your pets with medications.

We have many bluebirds right now starting to stake out the nesting boxes, so I opted to gather some materials that may cater more to their needs: small twigs of various sizes and pliability, pine needles, grasses, and some grapevine and thin river birch bark. Some other materials you could also add are mosses, lichen, leaves, plant down (like the fuzzies from cattails or cottonwood), or feathers.

After carefully foraging materials and making sure I wasn’t disrupting or taking too much while gathering, it was time to stuff and fill the whisk up and hang on a hook on my laundry line post. Now time to see if any birds discover this offering and decide to utilize!