Build Your Own Birdhouses and Feeders: From Simple, Natural Designs to Spectacular, Customized Houses and Feeders [Paperback]

John Perkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 1997

Local songbird populations are rapidly declining, and food, shelter and safe nesting areas are urgently needed. This remarkable book is packed with great ideas plus all the woodworking drawings and howto information needed for hobbyists and birders who want to build attractive birdhouses, feeders and nesting boxes that will attract birds.

Build Your Own Birdhouses and Feeders features a wide range of designs suitable for all skill levels and space limitations, from a very easy box feeder for a small balcony to the challenge of a magnificent bird mansion for a large garden. The 25 projects appeal to a variety of tastes, ranging from a traditional Victorian townhouse, to a tonguein-cheek Wild West saloon, to a medieval tournament tent.

Each project includes:

• Detailed designs with acolor photo of the finished item
• Easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step illustrations
• Enlarged and technical diagrams in color
• List of recommended materials
• Advice on choosing a location for best results.

(2009)

Editorial Reviews

Review

If you enjoy woodworking and birds, this book offers you plenty of projects. (Dan R. Kunkle Wildlife Activist 200208)

A helpful how-to book... plenty of photos for illustrations and drawings showing cutting and building techniques. (Linda Turk Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal 20041010)

Step-by-step instructions and photos... information on encouraging birds to visit... will be equally at home as fanciful decorations. (Country Accents 2009)

You will soon find yourself building a variety of shapes and sizes to make your backyard and perfect resting place. (Terry Peters North Shore News (North Vancouver) )

Step-by-step illustrations, creative touches and good basic bird-friendly designs for the do-it-yourselfer, the bird lover and the woodworker. (Lois Cooper Muskoka Today (Gravenhurst ON) )

Absolutely fun... one of the best of the many birdhouse books available. (Barb Siddiqui WoodCentral.com )

This book is absolutely fun. (Barb Siddiqui WoodCentral.com )

To share with children or beginning woodworkers, this is one of the best of the many birdhouse books available. (Barb Siddiqui WoodCentral.com )

About the Author

John Perkins is an architectural design technician with a background in model-making as well as furniture and product design. A contributor to leading woodworking magazines and the author of several books, he is a technical and advertising consultant for leading tool companies.

(2009)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Firefly Books (March 14, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155209135X
• ISBN-13: 978-1552091357
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Book, Great Plans, June 25, 2000

By 

Al the Pal "Al the Pal" (The Fruited Plain, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Build Your Own Birdhouses (Hardcover)

Perkins begins the book with some backround bird and woodworking information that will be useful for the beginner. He then gets into plans for 19 houses and 7 feeders.

Each project includes color photos of the completed house or feeder - these are not just the figments of a writer's imagination. There are detailed, measured, exploded color drawings of each house. His designs include several different methods of access for cleaning out the houses after each nesting period. I particularly like the "slide" designs - no tools or dropped screws to worry about.

Some of these houses are so pretty, I don't know if I would want to put them out in the yard. I suppose with a little imagination, you could scale his designs to meet the needs of a variety of species. He has a breif, one page chart showing entrance sizes for some birds. He also show "slot" as well as round entrance options on some of his designs. I still keep referring back to Scott D. Campbell's "The Complete Book of Birdhouse Construction for Woodworkers" as a more complete technical reference. (See that review on Amazon.)

Overall, this is a very good book on birdhouses, very inspirational for the imaginative bird "landlord." This book is profusely illustrated with color photos and drawings; it could be a "coffee table" book if you don't get it filled with sawdust!

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Build Your Birdhouses and Feeders., July 13, 2005

By 

John A. Bergvall (Northern Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Build Your Own Birdhouses and Feeders: From Simple, Natural Designs to Spectacular, Customized Houses and Feeders (Paperback)

No place in this book gives hole sizes for the birds you want to attract. Birds are very fussy about the size of the hole and also the size of the nesting cavity. I would consider this the worst book I have ever read on building bird house and feeders. I am glad I looked at it before I gave it to a friend. Not one practical bird feeder for wet and inclement weather. Beautiful bird houses, but no birds!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars easy directions, February 6, 2010

By 

Verna Grindstaff (Robbinsville, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Build Your Own Birdhouses and Feeders: From Simple, Natural Designs to Spectacular, Customized Houses and Feeders (Paperback)

Bought this book for my husband and am still waiting for my bird house, but he did enjoy looking at the pictures.lol