Fancy Birdhouse Designs to Decorate Your Backyard

One of the more popular ways to add to the attractiveness of your back yard is to provide a habitat that draws in your bird population. Birds are a delightful member of your "estate" adding not only a pleasing visual improvement, but the wonderful sounds that accompany many bird species. Fancy birdhouses are a simple way to attract the birds while making the yard attractive to your human visitors.

But the story is incomplete unless we recognize that putting a birdhouse in the backyard also allows for flights of fancy as well. These are miniature houses, and generally the birds are indifferent to the exterior of the house, so it provides a great opportunity to add a twist that reflects the personality of the owner of the property.

This personal expression can take on an incredible range of options. Here are just a few ideas that you can find:

Stained Glass Birdhouses - One of my favorites, these are often simple designs, but have sides fashioned with stained glass that will capture are reflect the sun and add a visual appeal that is larger than the house itself.

Face Birdhouses - A recently popular type of house, these are shaped like an A frame, but the front surface is a face made from a resin form. The faces available include a popular cat, where the bird hole is the mouth, along with a pirate face, or a frog, a tree leaf, or a deer with antlers.

Painted Birdhouses - By simply adding a design with paint, the choices are endless. You can create almost any desired look with paint, and these tend to be relatively inexpensive as well.

Victorian Birdhouses - While we can't all afford the elegance of a Victorian home, a Victorian bird house can add that decorative touch that doesn't come with the traditional birdfeeder. There quite a few of these fancy homes for birds, here's a look at some of the unique Victorian bird houses that you can get for your avian friends.

Bamboo Birdhouses - Bamboo birdhouses are ideal for the eco-minded friend of birds. You can purchase one made completely out of bamboo or use bamboo to trim and decorate your birdhouse.

One of the favorites for many backyards are the Victorian mansion birdhouse. These reflect the best the era had to offer, and can be found in multi-story designs, with the size and presence you would expect from a mansion. If you can't afford a real mansion, this may be the next best thing!

What could be more stately than a church or a chapel. These capture a variety of houses of worship. From the old traditions of the Byzantine eastern Christianity, to the stately Notre Dame, or a Gothic look, or to the simple country chapel, there is a church birdhouse design to fit your tastes. Some of the church designs look more like the mansions, while other are reminiscent of a small country chapel, put in a more rustic setting. Either way a church bird house is a great home for some of the smaller birds like wrens that may frequent your yard.

If you are looking for something not quite so ornate, but a little more rustic, take a look at a log cabin bird house design. From a simpler time in our country's history, these are one of the favorite designs for birdhouses, as they are closer to the "natural" habitat of our bird friends.

One of the most popular items to add to your backyard is a bird house or a bird feeder. While not as impressive as many bird baths, a unique bird house can make quite an impression. Millions of people have one of these in their yards. Because of that, many bird lovers want to add a birdhouse that is unique or catches their visitors eye. Decorative birdhouses are a great way to do that, and many unique houses like church birdhouse and log cabins can be found, but one of the more popular styles is the Victorian architecture.

Now, it should be noted that there is not one specific style that is truly Victorian, but there are a number of styles that were popular in the U.S. around the time of Queen Victoria's reign in the last 60 years of the 1800's. Different styles became popular in the the Northeast (for example, the Stick-Eastlake with its steeply pitched roofs and wood shingles) to the Southern and Western states (Queen Anne with its wide balconies and wrap around style) to Italianate style which was popular in many places, including New Orleans and San Francisco, which featured bay windows and oddly placed chimneys.

Even though the styles of these home varied significantly, the one common theme was that they represented a lifestyle, sort of the 1800's version of the rich and famous. Conspicuous consumption and excess was the theme, and that was was what you spent your money on.

Today these ornate birdhouses allow us to recapture just a little of the grandeur of the era, by putting a small piece of it in our homes. Since most of us can't afford or may not want to live in one of these homes, it's a comparatively small luxury we can afford to put one in the yard.

Just like the homes of the era, there are a wide variety of Victorian bird houses to be found. You can find simple cottages, or multiple story houses, with intricate roofs and replica balconies and porches.

Many are hand crafted, but these days many of the decorative birdhouses are fashioned from resin material that is actually molded, which allows very intricate designs to be built at an affordable cost. There are also many miniature ceramic birdhouses as well, and you can even find some that come with a pedestal.

Another popular item for backyard birders is are gazebo bird feeders. These have some of the same Victorian elements that recall the 1800's.