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Hanging Birdhouse


Inspired by a Korean TV drama, Mitch Peacock builds a hanging birdhouse for his garden

Red-roofed birdhouse hanging in a garden tree.

I can’t explain what it was about this birdhouse that made me want to recreate it, although each time I saw it on the television in Start-Up, it made me smile. Whether the birds in our garden will appreciate the bright colours is something only time will tell.

Now is a good time to make birdhouses. As daylight hours shorten and the weather becomes less clement, we need to find projects that can be constructed inside the workshop. Odours from wood treatments, adhesives and decorative finishes, all need a few months to dissipate, and the birds need to become accustomed to the new arrivals ahead of the nesting season.

The overall size of this birdhouse should be adequate for most small garden birds, and the hole size can be chosen to attract specific species (mine is designed for blue tits). There is plenty of information available on sizing the opening for different species online.

Birdhouse Plan

Birdhouse components with measurements and dimensions.

Making the Birdhouse

Wood planks and hand plane on workbench.
1. This is a good opportunity to use up some workshop scraps, or in my case some slats from packing cases and pallets. Trust me, the birds will not be too fussy, and this also goes for the joinery, making this a good beginner’s project
Wood clamped on workbench with shavings
2. Most of the panels were wider than my material, and consequently I started by edge gluing some pieces together. Here I’m clamping panels to make the front and rear of the birdhouse, both at the same time in one pair of clamps; remembering not to apply glue between them
Wood shavings beside a hand plane on workbench.
3. The narrow boards for the birdhouse sides were planed to the appropriate angles, top and bottom, to meet the roof and base. Planing them together gives a wider area for the plane to balance on, making the job easier
Carpenter using hand plane on wooden board
4. Once the glued-up panels were cured, I planed them flat and smooth, which will help paint application, and shedding of water in use. Exact thickness isn’t important; remember, the birds aren’t too fussy
Measuring and marking wood with ruler and pencil
5. The shape of the front and back was marked in with an angle finder, although a protractor would be fine
Carving wood with a chisel in workshop.
6. The original birdhouse had a large opening which I wanted to reflect while restricting access to blue tits. I achieved this by marking in a large recess …
Person carving wood with chisel on workbench.
7. … that was excavated to a few millimetres. I removed most of the material with a 1in chisel, and regularised the surface with a router plane. On reflection, a textured finish might have looked nice
Wood auger drilling into wooden board
8. A through hole of 25mm was bored within the recess, suitable for blue tits
Sawing wood clamped on workbench in workshop.
9. With all the major detailing work complete on the front of the birdhouse, it was sawn and planed to shape, along with the identically shaped back
Using a marking gauge on wooden board
10. One of the details from the original that I wanted to recreate were the mid-panel grooves that make them look built-up. These were easy to run through using a small plough plane
Person sawing wood on workbench
11. With the front, back and sides prepared, the exact size of the base was checked, and the panel for that sawn to size
Man drilling into wood with hand drill.
12. Nails or dowels are both good permanent fixings for the birdhouse parts, and should be pre-bored for. Alternately angling the fixings will help stop the parts from separating
Cutting wood with coping saw on workbench.
13. The semi-circular perch was rough sawn and then planed to the line before boring for fixing dowels
Woodworking project with drilled holes and sawdust.
14. Dowel ‘pops’ were used to transfer dowel positions to the front, so that the perch could be fitted centrally below the recess
Wooden birdhouse with pink roof on table.
15. Both sides, one roof panel and the top board, were through fixed with glued dowels
Hand drilling wooden birdhouse on workbench.
16. I thought the second roof panel should be removable, to allow for cleaning out, so countersunk through holes were bored in the roof, and pilot holes bored into the front and back panels
Chiseling pink paint on wooden birdhouse roof.
17. Brass screws, wiped with a little grease or wax, ensure that access will be easy for the life of the birdhouse
Installing hook on red wooden roof structure.
18. In order to hang the birdhouse, its balance point was found with a finger, by experiment, with the removable roof off, and a large screw eye installed from above. A hardwood backing block was added below the roof for the full length of the screw eye to bite into

I hope I’ve inspired some of you to build a birdhouse this autumn, whether a slightly quirky one like this, or something more traditional.

Further Reading

How to Make a Birdhouse

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