Customer Reviews

Birdhouses You Can Build in a Day (Popular Woodworking)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I you enjoy birds in the garden, a few birdhouses will help you keep them hanging around after they chow down on the bird seed. A nice house can be very expensive, but if you're handy with a hammer, you can whip one up yourself. 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 plans for the beginning as well as the experienced woodworker. My favorite project is the log cabin birdhouse for the Eastern Bluebird, but there are also project plans and instructions for building a bat house and a butterfly house. In addition, there are projects for bird baths and bird feeders.

One wonderful feature of this book is that each bird house 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. 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, it is a nice way to organize the book.

Another nice feature in this book 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. Additional useful information includes construction notes, a section on attracting birds, butterflies, and bats, and a resource section.

Birdhouses You Can Make in a Day is well written, informative, and inspiring. The writers' love of wild birds comes through very clearly in this book.

I have purchased a number of birdhouse books. Most of them have plans for birdhouses that are meant to be painted and prettied up - to the point that birds would never occupy them. Birds want something that resembles the wood (untreated) they find in nature. This book has common sense plans that will attract and protect birds. Just so happens that most of the birdhouses are also attractive. This is one of the better birdhouse books.

This book occupies a nice, comfortable middle ground among birdhouse books - simple, but with enough variation to have fun, and with good technical information for a number of species. All birdhouses in the book are illustrated with both color photos and illustrations, and have tables showing the dimensions of all pieces.

I picked it up because my wife wanted to put up a number of birdhouses this year, so we needed to be able to build them quickly. As an example of how fast these can go, we did the cutting layout for 2 bluebird houses and 1 northern flicker house in about an hour, cut the pieces out literally during the 10-minute intermissions between periods watching a hockey game, and assembled them in about an hour and a half. (Paint or other decoration time would be extra.) Note that that was in an equipped shop - table saw, band saw, and drill press, but even quadrupling the cutting time if using a jigsaw, circular saw and cutting guides, you can still knock these out in short order. You'll find assembly fastest if you have access to a narrow crown stapler or finish nailer, but hand-nailing, like cutout with a circular saw, isn't going to add a lot of time.

I used 3/4" exterior plywood in a good grade (make sure it's exterior!). I had the yard cut the sheet into quarters to make handling easy as well as accomodate cutting the longest pieces in the book. A sheet will make 6-10 birdhouses, depending on the sizes and types you select. The 3 birdhouses referenced above (one quite large) took two of the quarter sheets, with little scrap. The plywood set me back all of $31.00. Do yourself a favor and get a better grade at a lumberyard - stay away from the big box home center for this. Also, if you do use plywood, you will have to paint or use a preservative on the exterior of the houses you build.

I love this book!!!! I have already built several of the houses. They are really easy even if you don't have a lot of experience in wood cutting!
LOVE IT!!!!

Lots of good information for people just getting started... not just drawings and dimensions. Plans for each project are very complete with a detailed cutting list, dimensional drawings, helpful notes and tips. There are quite a few basic projects, but many more "creative" versions. For anyone looking for a bunch of basic designs, this is more than that. For anyone looking for creative ideas for alternative designs, there are quite a few in here, including feeders, etc.

This is another very informative book, we love making a backyard & having the beautiful birds here so we want to build all the houses we want with this book !

Great book with easy to follow instructions. Some designs are alittle more advanced than I had planned on doing. Some designs are more for looks than workability. They won't work for the species that you are building them for. The ash throated flycatcher "desert villa" that is in the book has three different cavities in order to build a nest. Not really a feasible idea, because not all nest areas will be used at the same time.

I ordered this for my parents and it was just what they were looking for. I also purchased 2 other books on Birdhouse's and they were just as good.

These birdhouses are very simple designs, probably meant for kids to build. It is definitley not what I was expecting. Disappointing!

This book has some nice patterns, however, the instructions are incomplete. Whenever a joint is not 90 degrees, or some shaping is required, the angles for mitering are incorrect, or just missing. You need to do some figuring and even experimenting to get them right, resulting in what can be a major waste of time and materials, or just accepting that the outcome will not be satisfactory.