Last month I watched a black fantail picking up feathers to line her nest. She particularly picked out the soft white ones. Those that had prickly pine needles in them were discarded. They looked like second hand chook feathers out of last year's sparrow's nest - nothing like recycling.
Some birds are less fussy in their nestmaking; song thrushes just use mud. They are neater than blackbirds, which also use mud but then plaster other bits of grass and stuff over the top.
Most small birds, dunnocks, sparrows, grey warblers etc, make a new nest every spring. Occasionally, if tree real estate is scarce a blackbird might build on top of an old nest from last year, but they don't go back into the old nest. That's one of nature's ways of controlling nasty feather mites and parasites that might find a nice meal on their nestlings.
Starlings do go back the the same hole - a roof is a roof, right? You can't go past a good overhang. But they will always build a new nest and can often be seen at the beginning of spring chucking out last year's nest material.
My mother used to display similar behaviour every spring. She would pull out the blankets and hang them on the line, over fences, anywhere to catch the long awaited sun. Then it was the furniture. Beds, chairs and sofas got shoved about, wiped down, cleaned behind. Old toys, pens, pencils and wizened apple cores got retrieved and deposited in their correct receptacle.
