Birds need shorter hair vs tail hair so they can weave
They also like dryer lint (with NO fabric softener)
6 Likes
The little nest is adorable!
I always used to do this. Somewhere in my collection of stuff I have an oriole nest made up of my first horse’s hair and orange baling twine and a hummingbird nest (or some small bird) made of grey and white hair from my other horse. I loved putting out the hair and seeing where it showed up and how it was used.
I wonder if they would use cat fur. (Oh, the irony, right? lol)
2 Likes
I have been donating my horse’s hair. I brush her outside in her pen or while she is in turnout and let the hair fly in the wind. It makes for less sweeping in the grooming area and the birds can partake of her lovely hair 
.
Susan
1 Like
i’ve seen barnswallow infants being hung by horse mane and/or tail hair. It is sickening. When they line their nests with body hair, or fleece from our sheep though, it’s great. For some odd reason the swallows seem to like the long strands. When i can see hair hanging down from a nest and can reach it i take scissors and cut them.
I would take my heavy shedding white dog outside and brush her with the Furminator. Definitely saw birds picking up tufts of her hair and found a nest lined in soft white fur, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they would use cat hair as well.
1 Like
I clicked on this thread with the intention of mentioning exactly the same thing - the long hair can be deadly for nestlings. The swallows don’t seem to be able to weave the long hair into the beautiful little nests, and seem to only patch it into the mud, leaving loops and tangles to catch their babies.
2 Likes
I used to get a kick out of seeing nests made from my three horses’ hair. They were all very different colors (one sorrel paint, one very light gray, one bay), so it was easy to see whose hair went into each nest.
Too bad there isn’t a good use for my own hair, which I shed at an alarming rate but do not want to cut.
Rebecca
2 Likes
I didn’t know people picked and threw out the hair their horses shed out normally? I guess if you brush them in the barn isle, but I don’t so our 3 have hair blowing into the dry lot and the rest is in the manure pile.
The birds find it easily.
2 Likes
I remember having both of mine tied to fence posts and going back and forth between them when they were shedding profusely. Birds had taken notice and would pick up the hair from the ground when I moved to the other horse.
I was working on the gelding when a bird landed on the mare’s croup, deciding to pluck the hair straight from the source. which it did, cheeky little thing.
I was surprised, but mare wasn’t bothered by it at all.
2 Likes
I remember brushing out my beloved Golden Retriever . And letting it blow across the yard. Then seeing birds gathering and nesting in her undercoat. Miss her very much.
2 Likes
i clip my Portuguese Water Dogs on the front porch and then sweep their huge volume of shorn curls into the peony bushes off the edge. Peonies don’t seem to mind and i suppose the birds collect it up(?).
1 Like
Cool! I will bring some home and put it near my feeders. Everyone is about to shed.
I found 2.5 nests made of mane or tail hair at the barn. I got them when they were abandoned and fell out of the trees.
Just a note- dryer lint is NOT safe if you use any chemicals on your laundry. Meaning commercial laundry soap or any fabric softener or dryer sheets.
I suppose this would also hold true for a horse who has been sprayed with fly spray or has had grooming products applied?
1 Like
sparrows and orioles and bluebirds all use mane and tail hair, but they weave it inside. It’s packed tight. What i’m talking about are the mud nests that barn swallows make. Generallly half rounds on a beam… You can see long tendrils of horse hair dangling down from them.
