Thank you Tielfan, I was a bit worried because I don't want to introduce sick stuff in their room.

The circled parts look like buds where new branches are starting to develop. I don't see anything abnormal. You can see them better in person of course, and if anything looks wrong you could just cut that part off.

Can they eat them buds? they look nice and soft and just the thing they'd be interested in. I will treat the entire branches of course as I did with the willow, steam and disinfectant.

EDIT: no, they look normal and well formed.

I don't know how edible the buds will actually be, but apple is a safe wood and it should be OK as long as they don't cram their crops full of indigestible material. Apparently it's fairly common for birds to eat bark so don't be too concerned if you see them eating a little of that. Eating a lot of bark or eating the actual wood would be a bigger cause for concern

Your woodland looks good to me..
I'm not sure about the buds...
maybe snip them off if your unsure..
I recon the whole branch looks good....
Barbara.... are you including a woodland in your bird room? LOL...keep enough room for yourself and the birds... come dusk... you'll be seeing them roost, in their own trees!

LOL Jan you have no idea the amount of wood I have right now... willow in the boiler room, magnolia on the hallway and the cleaning guy is complaining of course, apple in the bathtub drying and ash still in the car!
Paul, my partner, said to me: you are the crazy bird lady... now they will call me the crazy branches man (he's the one with the car full of them )
I reckon I could build a rustic little shed with all the wood I got right now.
I will need more tiels to destroy all that quicker

Ok, these branches will be the death of me.
I almost regret not sticking with the PVC playgym I built for them last year.

Today I steamed and disinfected the last apple branches, and examining them while they were wet I nooticed something that either wasn't there a few days ago or just sticks out now that the wood is damp.

In a few spots on the larger parts of the branches there is something like a green-brown matter, it could be old mud and could be moss or lichens.

On a few of the smaller branches there is something VERY green, I have to say it looks pretty but it definitely doesn't belong to a tree. It has to be some parasite plant that feeds on the wood.

I took pics of the mossy stuff and the super-green stuff too.

I wonder if any of you have seen anything like this. My experience with trees is basically limited to olive trees and what grows on damp trees is a mystery for me.
I was planning to use the largest parts of the apple branches to make perches, so those parts will be scrubbed again, but the twiggy parts with those greens? do i just throw them away?

Arg, I remember when I cut a mulberry branch from the creek. It was stained with dried berries on the bark. I just about died getting that cleaned. I'm sure you know how long it takes. Then my grandma came over and thought it was firewood.

Yeahhh, I think I'd throw out the branch with the lichens or whatever all over it. I have no idea whether that's safe or not. If there's just a little bit you might be able to scrape it off with a knife.

Sigh. Ok, I will throw everything that got that green. Shame because I had an idea for the twigs.

If the ash does this to me too I will be really sad.