We all know that littering is terrible for our environment. It affects our wildlife in ways that many of us don’t see. For example…did you know that birds will use trash and litter when building their nests? Yes they do! It’s NOT healthy for them nor their babies! Would you want to live in a trash? Sleep in it? Of course not!

The purpose of my post today is to bring awareness of how trash and litter is being used in bird’s nest. PLEASE and I mean PLEASE…dispose of all trash appropriately! In my one photo you’ll see a bird’s nest that has pieces of plastic store bags woven into it. There’s a plastic straw and numerous cigarette butt filters woven throughout the nest too. Absolutely disgusting!

Nest number one in my post was made by a House Finch in my hanging flower basket. She laid 4 eggs, 3 hatched and 2 babies grew up and fledged about 12 days later. That’s 2 out of 4 babies who made it. The photo shows the now vacated nest.

Second nest in my photograph was made by another Finch in my other hanging flower basket. That one had 4 out of 5 babies who made it. If you look at that nest closely you’ll see cigarette butts, plastic shopping bag pieces, paper bag pieces, piece of foam and a paper wrapper from a plastic drinking straw.  All of this really disgusts me! We keep our yard extremely clean, so all of this trash and garbage is being picked up elsewhere and brought here when they construct their nests.

Photograh above is how a bird’s nest should look! This one was built by a Robin in one of my planters that held an Aloe Vera plant. Look at how nice and clean it is! There’s no trash inter-woven throughout the nest. NONE. The Robin constructed that entire nest in less than 48 hours. She used freshly mowed grass and leaves. The following 5 days after the nest was finished she laid 3 eggs. All 3 hatched and fledged.

Please think about the things you’re tossing out and littering with! Those small items like paper wrappers from fast food, drinking straws, paper napkins, plastic bags, cigarette butts, etc. are finding their way into bird’s nest. Dispose of your trash and garbage properly!!! If you see trash laying around…take a few seconds to pick it up. We’ve got to do more! I’m seeing more and more bird’s nest being constructed out of garbage!