cotton wool as nesting material

[Kreacha]

Hi,
I want to help the birds by putting out some nesting material and was wondering if cotton wool would be suitable? Thanks

[Picidae]

Welcome to WAB and great to help the birds with nesting material. Doubt they'd be needing much nesting material at this time of year though! However, when they do start to need it (March/April), I personally wouldn't use cotton wool. It's heavily fibered for one thing so ultra absorbent and could become a breeding ground for bacteria in the nest and stays damp for a long time if it gets wet. I think I'd also be concerned about ventilation and risk of suffocation of nestlings. I could be wrong so that's just my personal opinion.

This is probably a good time to collect any feathers lying around - wash them in mild detergent and leave to dry ready to be put out next year.

If you have a hairdressers near you, human hair also makes good nesting material as does animal hair - I used to groom my dog after his shampoo and save his hair!

When I start pruning/clearing (in February), I keep little piles of dried fine twigs, dead weed heads/stems etc out in the gar den - the birds love this! I sweep the dead leaves to one side and leave them until end of April before removing them. I'm sure most of the time, any lack of nesting material is due to our obsession for 'tidy' gardens!

[tameblackbirds]

I have a poodle and birds adore the clippings from him. I wouldn't use cotton wool either for the same reasons as Picidea mentioned

[Kleftiwallah]

Could use sheeps wool pulled off the barbed wire as I'm sure this is collected and used bythe birds themselves. Cheers, Tony.

[AndrewB]

Last spring I put up some hanging baskets with the felt linings which cost about £1 each from wilkinsons. The sparrows completely shredded them!

Next year I plan to just buy some linings and leave them out for them.

[bobbarber]

In my garden I have a hanging basket with a fine mesh liner into which I pop any small feathers, bits of moss and lichen,any old jumpers unpicked and cut up into small lengths, hair etc. I do this in the late Winter, and come the Spring the birds have emptied it, with the added bonus of a meal from the insects that have gathered there...Bob

[jaykay]

I'm another one who used dog hair this year. after brushing my mum's dog (hadn't got one of my own!) I emptied the brush of the hair and stuffed it in an old sock, cut three small holes in it and hung it on the bird feeds. The birds loved it and after cleaning out the nest box at the beginning of this month I was able to look at the great tit's nest and sure enough there's plenty of dog hair in there. hope you have success

[loripo]

Would small bits of felt carpet underlay be OK - or would that contain too much artificial fibre?