Birds in the hood

Construction of birdhouses and bird feeders can be as simple or as complex as you wish to make it. Bird feeders can look like tiny bungalows, wooden A-frames or miniature chalets. Birdhouses need no ornamentation to serve the birds using them, but an attractive design can enhance a yard. Thus, the custom-built bird feeders are for the person filling them, not for the birds.

My neighbor has two wood salad bowls with a wooden rod through the center. The house across the street has a large glass hanging feeder.

A feeder could be attached to any window. It will bring the bird up close for an exciting view. The tube bird feeder, found in any variety store, could be fun. One neighbor has a bird feeder made from old car license plates.

My nephew made an egg carton bird feeder in school. My Aunt Hilda has birdhouses made out of gourds hanging off of her porch. My grandmother has a rustic barn creation bird feeder that has painted on the top, “See Rock City.”

Building a birdhouse can be purely practical or absolutely outrageous. I have found birdhouses and feeders built to resemble a gazebo, a church, a log cabin, a totem-like housing complex, a pagoda, a schoolhouse, even a little outhouse!

Would the blue jays, sparrows, starlings or finches that visit the feeder in my yard be more excited if I had a little deck for the feathered guests to stand on? I think not.

Bird feeders and houses are designed to bring pleasure for you and benefit our feathered friends. Where is it written that I have to build a fanciful birdhouse? It doesn’t seem to matter to the birds.

Mix together my plain and simple looking bird feeder with birdseed and it looks like a scene from the movie “The Birds in the Backyard.”

Works for me.

Nancee Harrison is a past columnist for the Greene County Daily World. Visit www.blondeladywithdarkroots.com or email her at blondelasywithdarkroots@gmail.com or send comments to Nancee, Daily World, box 129 Linton IN 47441.