Cat hair is for the birds

When I was growing up I sometimes found birds nests made of horse hair. It seems to be an excellent building material. Now that the cat is shedding I thought I’d see if birds ever make their nests out of cat hair. There are two nests in the bushes in front of my house, so empirical evidence suggests that they do not. However, Cornell University’s All About Birds site says that they do.

Cornell suggests putting out any of the following:

• Dead twigs [check: got plenty of these]
• Dead leaves [check: too lazy to ever rake]
• Dry grass [nope: dug up entire yard years ago]
• Yarn or string—cut into 4- to 8-inch pieces [hmm, what colors?]
• Human or animal hair (especially horse hair) [Hab Moo keeps his hair too short, but the cats and I have plenty]
• Fur (e.g. dog or cat fur) [um, isn't animal hair and fur the same thing?]
• Sheep’s wool [nope: might have a sweater I could cut up]
• Feathers [don't they have their own?]
• Plant fluff or down (e.g. cattail fluff, cottonwood down) [nope, no fluffy plants]
• Kapok, cotton batting, or other stuffing material [Kapok? Nope, I don't live in Mexico or further south.]
• …

Cotton batting? I now know how to get rid of the old futon in our bedroom! Ripping into it will be a fun project. Once Hab Moo sees me collecting my hair and pulling stuffing from a mattress, he’s sure to be impressed. He’s a bird watcher, after all.

You can actually buy kapok pods for a couple a bucks a piece if you don’t have any other option because you’re a bald and petless person with allergies to natural fibers living in a parking lot or something. And who still has birds around.

I think birds will really try just about anything. As much as I’d like to forget, I still vividly remember seeing a baby bird swinging out of its nest with plastic from a cassette tape wrapped around its neck. It swung for days until it was just bones. I’m glad the days of cassette tapes are over for just that reason. I’ve also seen nests with tinsel from Xmas, and pieces of plastic bags.

I’m not sure that it’s quite time yet for the birds to start building nests. There certainly isn’t any mud around for the robins to use to build theirs. My bird bath has been very popular with them in the last few days. Perhaps I should make a mud pit for them.

Do you think the neighbors will think I’m a little odd?