We have quite a few nest boxes on our place and a Spring ritual is to go around with a ladder and various tools and clean them out. Some people like to do this in the Fall. We think birds might like to roost in the boxes during the winter so the old nesting material may provide them a little extra warmth during the cold season. Most of the feathers in the nests are ones from ducks and geese that we ate during the previous winter. When the swallows are flying and gathering material for their nests, we toss the feathers into the air and they swoop down to catch them and take them to the boxes!
Sadly, some birds don’t make it out of the nest.
Wasps in the boxes will discourage nesting.
This nesting bird found a Northern Flicker feather to add to its nest.
Swallow nest – Tree or Violet-green?
Some baling twine from the straw we used to mulch our garden.
Tiny House Wrens like to fill boxes with sticks before they build a tiny nest on top. They will also simply fill boxes with sticks to keep other birds from using them. If we see them doing this with several boxes, we try to clean the sticks out so that swallows and bluebirds can also use the boxes.
A House Wren nest.
Here is a House Wren nest on top of a bluebird nest. Both nests looked sucessful.
The bluebird nest.
My Everyday Photos 