Birdhouses You Can Build in a Day Book Review

If you enjoy watching birds in your garden, a few birdhouses will help you keep them hanging around after they chow down on the bird seed in your feeder. A nice house can be very expensive, but if you’re handy with a hammer, you can whip one up yourself. Since building birdhouses can be a bit time consuming, I was delighted to see the wonderful new Popular Woodworking book, BIRDHOUSES YOU CAN BUILD IN A DAY.

This book has over fifty projects and includes projects for the beginning as well as the experienced woodworker. Each project includes a clear photo of the finished house, building instructions and a detailed construction plan. My favorite project is the log cabin birdhouse for the Eastern Bluebird. These little birds need all the help they can get, but their birdhouses are usually so unattractive that I hate to hang them in locations that I can see from the house. With this adorable birdhouse plan, that is no longer a problem. I also liked the project plans and instructions for building a bat house and a butterfly house. In addition, there are projects for other bird related projects, such as bird baths and bird feeders.

One wonderful feature of this book is that each birdhouse is made to attract a specific type of bird. The projects are organized alphabetically by bird species, so it is fairly easy to find the house you want to build. However, you may have a bit of trouble finding the right house for a few species, such as the American Robin, which I would have looked for under Robin, but, overall, this is really a nice way to organize the book.

Another nice feature of BIRDHOUSES YOU CAN BUILD IN A DAY is the informational sidebar for each bird species. There is also a section for each house that tells how to install it to attract the bird species that it is made for. This is especially important for birds that have specific nesting habits. Additional useful information includes construction notes, a section on attracting birds, butterflies, and bats, and a resource section.

BIRDHOUSES YOU CAN BUILD IN A DAY is well written, informative, and inspiring. The writers’ love of wild birds comes through very clearly in this book and the plans are well done and easy to use. I give the book four and 1/2 out of five sunflowers.

About the Book:
Title: Birdhouses You Can Build in a Day
Publisher: Popular Woodworking
Date: 2004
Pages: 128
ISBN: 1-55870-704-2
Cost: 24.99