Just Some Pretty Birdhouses for Your Feathered Friends

Welcome to Wildlife Week, an exploration of what happens when nature and home meet.

Whether you’re working with a multi-acre property that could be its own nature preserve or a city balcony with room for a chair and little else, doing something for the birds when styling your outdoor space has tons of benefits for you and for your avian friends. Birds are good for the ecosystem, serving as natural pest and weed control and helping pollinate the plants we know and love. They’re also cute, and colorful, and sometimes they sing sweet songs—what’s not to love?

A birdhouse provides birds with a place to nest and hide from the elements, especially convenient (for them) when the weather is bad or when they’re caring for eggs and, later, baby birds. And just as you want your own home to reflect your taste, so too should the housing you give the birds in your area look stylish and fun! Whether the birds in your life are classic mid-century modern fans or partial to a more PoMo aesthetic, we’ve put together a list of birdhouses that will have you wish you were bird-sized, too. 

This open-air birdhouse, made in and inspired by the ranch houses of Southern California, is both a home for feathered, flying friends and also an activity unto itself: sold as a kit, you can follow the instructions for easy assembly and then make it your own, adding colorful paint or leaving it bare to let the natural wood shine.

Just because you don’t live in Miami doesn’t mean your birds can’t live there—that’s the logic behind this birdhouse, which uses white latticed wood and a pop of aqua blue to create a ‘‘1950s in sunny Florida’’ vibe for your would-be snowbirds.

Sleek and simple, this birdhouse is made from recycled plastic, and was designed to withstand the elements—it can hang in your yard during all four seasons, and the split-level design makes it a potential home for multiple bird families.

The porthole-style window on this birdhouse evokes the work of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, pioneers of post-modern design and no strangers to a bit of whimsy. Designed in Sweden, its clever layout allows you to house a family of birds from nesting to hatching. When the season is over, convert it into a feeder for any and all birds passing through your neck of the woods.

The father-daughter team behind Chirp Birdhouses craft intricately-made avian homages to the 20th century’s great architectural minds, from Louis Kahn to Peter Zumthor. This one, named for and inspired by the late Zaha Hadid, uses sloping angles to give birds a few spots from which to choose. DIY types can order it as a kit to assemble at home, or you can have it shipped fully assembled and ready to go.

Some of the mid-century’s most iconic buildings already look more than a little bird-like themselves—think about the swooping roof of Eero Saarinen’s TWA terminal, for one. This birdhouse, uses scraps of tropical hardwood to create soft shapes that come together to look both modern and organic at the same time.

If you’re looking for something even more eco-friendly for your bird pals, why not go with a home constructed entirely out of seagrass and recycled pieces of fabric? Each one of these is hand-woven and therefore one-of-a-kind, with the soft yet sturdy weave keeping birds extra-cozy in cooler temperatures.

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