How I Built a Custom Birdhouse City My Backyard

• What kind of paint should you use to paint an unfinished birdhouse?

  You can use acrylic paint or spray paint on your unfinished birdhouses. Acrylic paint is great for precision work, but spray paint gets the job done quickly. Finish with a weather proof sealant to protect the paint job.

  Just be sure to avoid getting paint inside the house, where it might harm the birds. You can stuff the hole with some newspaper to keep it clean.

• What color should you avoid painting a birdhouse?

  Two colors you should avoid painting your birdhouses are black or white.

  A black birdhouse will absorb too much heat and, while you may think a white birdhouse would help deflect heat, it turns out the color white can signal danger to birds.

• What supplies are needed to create a “bird neighborhood”?

  My birdhouses came from Michaels in-store, but you can also search for unpainted birdhouses by clicking here.

  Bird Supplies

  Adjustable Height Shepard Hooks

  Hammered Copper Bird Bath

  Swing Bird Feeder

  Cedar Bird Feeder

  Bird Feeding Station

  Bird Seed Storage Bird Seed Storage

  Squirrel Baffle

  Solar Powered Bird Bath Fountain

  Copper Bird Feeder

  2-Tier Feeder I recently added

  Painting Supplies:

  Paint Brushes

  Arteza Acrylic Paint Set

  Two more affordable paint options that also include paintbrushes and metallic colors:

  Alternate Acrylic Paint 1

  Alternate Acrylic Paint 2

  Weather-proof Sealant

  Cups w/ Lids for Pouring/Mixing Paint

My journey to build a city for birds began with a visit from a lone Blue Jay.

As someone fairly new to birdwatching, I had really only seen Cardinals and Mourning Doves in my yard, so I was pretty excited when a Blue Jay showed up. 

I would later find out they were not quite as rare as I believed, but in that moment I knew I had to figure out how to bring it back to my yard. So… with little to no research into the matter, I decided to build a bird neighborhood in my backyard– with an artistic twist, of course. 

The first thing I did was head over to Michael’s to grab an array of unfinished birdhouses.

I wanted it to feel like an actual tiny town for birds so, I made sure to grab a diner, an ice cream shop, a beach house, and some other random houses.

I also knew I needed more than birdhouses to build my bird neighborhood, so I went online and purchased some bird feeders, seeds, peanuts, a feeding station, and a hammered copper bird bath.  (You can find my exact supply list in the dropdown at the top of the page.)

Before I could start setting up my bird town, I needed to paint all the unfinished birdhouses with special attention given to the house I intended to use to lure the Blue Jay back to my yard.

To paint the houses, I ended up using acrylic paint. I had a new set of paint with 60 colors, so it was perfect for the occasion– no custom mixing needed.

When it came time to paint the Blue Jay’s house, I knew it couldn't be just any ordinary house. ( I should also mention, I’d named him Dewey by this point.) So… I decided to paint Dewey’s portrait on his birdhouse. Never mind that I later learned this type of house probably would not suit a Blue Jay. But… I’d never let a little thing like that stop me! ;)

With that complete, I was more than ready to set up this bird city in my backyard. I started with the focal point, a 6 Hook Feeding Station, which was dubbed the “town center”. I loved that it already came with a bunch of bird feeders.

You can watch me create and set the whole thing up here. ↓

I had also purchased a couple of adjustable shepherd’s hooks which I set up to hold this cool porch swing-style feeder and a nice cedar feeder that also had suet block attachments. 

The bird bath was set up near the newly dubbed town square– complete with a solar fountain. 

Setting up the birdhouses was the last step.

I set them up along a tree line in the back of my yard so they wouldn’t just be out in the open. Even birds deserve a little privacy, amiright…?

And that’s it. All that was left to do was wait and see what showed up. Over the next week, we had a bunch of visitors. We spent a lot of time on the back patio birdwatching and managed to see Tufted Titmice, Cardinals, Doves, Chickadees, and drum roll, please…. Blue Jays!

We’ve since made some adjustments to the “town”, but are attracting more birds than ever. My wife and I are also avid photographers, so it’s been a lot of fun mixing birdwatching with photography.

Anyone else love birdwatching? What kind of birds do you see in your yard?

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