An Easy Nesting Bag for Birds: Recycled Materials Project

This easy nesting bag for birds is a great kids activity and recycled materials project. Perfect for adding to your bird unit study.

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When the weather drops to freeze-your-nose off cold, I tend towards hibernation. While I love being outdoors, one thing this mama does not love is being COLD! Brrrrr! Anything below about 25 degrees is too cold, in my opinion. Still, there are young boys I need to educate, entertain, and ensure they stay more or less in one piece.

Since my poor children have a non-hacker mother when it is cold, I try to make up for that with fun winter crafts and activities. One thing we love to do is invent upcycled projects with items in the trash bin!

So next time your kids are stuck indoors, I have you covered with plenty of upcycled and recycled materials projects you can make from garbage!

We’ve been reading about birds recently in our homeschooling – from Elijah being fed by ravens, to folk tales about birds.

Since we love studying backyard birds in our homeschool, we often make things for our bird friends to help them out during the winter months. So to help our backyard birds, we did a recycled materials project to make a nesting bag for birds. This nesting bag helps birds find materials to line their nests and stay warm in winter. Too bad I can’t make myself one for when I have to go outdoors!

The boys were only 3 and 5 when we did not project. They had a blast stuffing their mesh bags with snippets of this and that for our feathery neighbors to line their nests.

The best part is that it’s so easy to make, even toddlers and preschoolers can get an easy win making this craft. Plus, you probably have all you need sitting around your house.

Use Recycled Materials to Make a Nesting Bag for Birds

Materials you’ll need to make your nesting bag for birds:

• A mesh bag – like one leftover from onions, garlic, or avocados. The various colors these produce bags come in make the nesting bag vibrant and unique!
• Cotton batting, or cotton balls
• String to tie off the top
• Nesting materials: ribbon, string, newspaper strips, cloth cut into small strips
• Other materials you could use: twigs, pine needles (from your old Christmas tree?), dental floss, yarn

STUFFING THE BAG

First, stuff the mesh bag with mostly cotton batting. The birds might like this but the main thing is to fill out the bag so the other little bits press against and poke out the sides. This will make it easier for the birds to grab. Alternatively, if you have a LOT of the other materials, you can skip this step.

MAKE IT EASY FOR THE BIRDS

Next, start tucking in bits of paper, ribbon and cloth. Keep the pieces rather small, about 1-2 inches to make it easy for the birds to grab.

Distribute your scraps all around the cotton batting. Don’t be worried if they start sticking out the holes. That’s good! You want that to happen. If your pieces are not sticking out, snip small holes in a few places in the bag. Make the holes just big enough so they have room to poke out a little for the birds to grab.

MAKE A TIE FOR HANGING YOUR NESTING BAG

Tie off the top larger hole in the bag with a piece of long bakery twine or string. Use the long ends to tie the nesting bag onto a tree, bird feeder, fence, or other spot where birds can perch and inspect their new “toy.”

SIT BACK AND OBSERVE

See what happens. Guess what we discovered: squirrels like nesting bags too! Ha! Don’t worry if you don’t see much activity at first. This is a good bird treat to keep hanging through winter and into spring when birds start creating new nests.

This fun and easy activity for kids uses up your scraps and gives you an opportunity to talk about taking care of animals with the kids. Plus, you can stay warm in the house while you make this great recycled craft!

More Bird Activities for Kids

Bird Watching Resources

Backyard Birds Unit Study for Homeschool

Create a Bird Village with Gingerbread Houses

What kinds of winter crafts and activities are you up to in your home? Do you have any other recycled materials project ideas?