If you keep a basket next to your machine to put all of your colorful thread scraps in and put it outside in the springtime, the birds will use the thread to make to make some very pretty coloful nests. I can't wait until spring!!!

Make sure that the thread isn't filament that can cut the delicate skin of the new hatched babies. I also save hair from my hairbrush.

I oncce saw a very frustrated song sparrow try to get horsehair fron a very un-cooperative horse -- it was so funny -- she was tugging on his mane and he kept shaking her away

Mim

Make sure the thread scraps are small enough that the birds or other animals won't get them wrapped around a leg or a wing! ;)
If anyone ever sees one of these colorful nests, take a picture!!

yes....just colorful COTTON thread!

That's a neat idea!

DH used to have a cotton hammock on the porch that had some frayed ends. The sparrows used to harvest fibers for their nest while he was sleeping on it!

i have a friend who has done this for years

I have been saving the trimmings from squaring up HST for the birds this year.

I used to have a Female canary that was always building a nest so I gave her bits of batting and some yarn that matched my living room she has such a pretty nest.

Threads and small scraps go into my garden area. What the birds don't use get tilled into the soil. It breaks up my clay soil and holds moisture, too.