I read about someone who put out only metallic fabric, gold and silver. They had a hard time spotting the bird's nests and wanted to be able to bird watch easier - so the gold and silver fabric made the nests easier to spot and enjoy watching.

I sprinkle them over my woodpile at all times of the year, just whenver my snip bag gets full. They do seem to appreciate it. It's fun to sit and watch them come "shopping."

I mostly do spring and fall.

I tried it and they blew all over the yard.

I use a SUET cage...keep it up all year...they take it when they need it...

I use a mesh veggie bag, and put small snippets of fabric in it. Don't do thread, as I don't want the babies to eat it.

It isn't just the eating. If you have a string long enough to catch on a tree limb, the bird is also in trouble. It could get wound around a leg of even it's body and it never could get loose. I say this happen when a lady hung washed fabrics on the line to dry and a bird found it was a lot of fun to unravel the thread. Fortunately we were ab le to unwind the bird and safe the life.

I use to do that until one day a found a baby bird hanging out of the bird house with it feet tangled in the thread. I no longer do this and let them find there own nesting material..

If you do this be careful there aren't any long threads which might entangle the birds. We rescued a bird once that had become tangled in some thread and the thread had disabled his wing until we removed it.

I really like this idea!