Birdhouses come in all shapes and sizes, but the project described in the following article is not intended to house birds. The idea is to build a decorative birdhouse as a piece of garden art to enhance the landscape. In fact the project does not involve building a birdhouse, but rather decorating an existing one with stones. Thanks to Melissa J. Will from the Empress of Dirt website for these instructions.
Here?s an idea for a decorative birdhouse that you can keep in the garden all year round. You can recycle an old birdhouse and add stones to it or use something with a similar shape and cover it with stones like the birdhouses you see here.
One thing that people often overlook is the difference between a birdhouse and a nesting box. Birdhouses like this garden art project are intended as decorations and are not built to house actual birds. If you wish to make a proper nesting box that it is safe for birds, please refer to these guidelines at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
When decorating a stone birdhouse, there are lots of possible design choices: consider the colour, texture and placement of the stones, and whether you also want to add little touches like window boxes, door frames, and so on. It?s best to establish the structures first, and then proceed with the decorating.
To ensure the stone birdhouse lasts a good long time, consider giving it a few coats of outdoor protection (such a polyurethane) to ensure it can handle rain and snow.
Read the rest at Empress of Dirt
Image source: Empress of Dirt
