Cave Art Bird Boxes.

I read that bird boxes are best made from sawn timber. This is a little rougher than the silky smooth creamy 'planed all round' which looks really nice, but is actually probably rubbish for bird boxes then?. As sawn was unavailable in the sizes I wanted, I had to buy PAR. The reason sawn is best the text said, was because the young birds inside the box are able to get a grip on the rough vertical inner face of the box and climb out of the hole and learn to fly.
That sentance stayed with me, I imagined young birds trying to get out..... But a house which your children can't get out of is a pretty major factor if you are deciding to buy it. As a solution I thought perhaps just nail a thin strip or two to create a ladder, then I thought carve grooves with a router might be a more realistic bird environment immitation.


Then it went off the track a bit, and the bird boxes we will make at St. Martins will have pre-historic style cave paintings in these bird dwellings. They wont be paintings they will be 'routings'. Drawings of birds on all four inner faces of the bird box. The young birds in there will be able to climb around in there, building up their perching muscles all day long. I imagined it would be like a rock climbing wall in there?

my prototype bird box with 'cave routings' to decorate the inside. 

Carved pictures of birds flying, perching, feeding combined with universal symbols such as the sun and stars. I will even put some trees in there so the birds are well prepared for their adult life!

  

The prototype in my garden. I put designs on the outside as well. 

I thought the friends at St. Martins could draw trees and birds and the like and I will carve them out with my router. Cave art for birds.