FOR THE BIRDS
... and the people too!
Ava Richards, Northern Cardinal, digital image, 2019
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Purple Finch House
Edward, Antoine, Ethan and Wyatt
Purple Finch
Scientific name: Haemorhous purpureus.
Birds and people can have a special connection. Birds can be calming, beautiful, peaceful, and even sleepy. This can help people relax in times of hardship and stress. Especially for people who are lonely, in nursing homes, or even in hospice (a place where ill people go before they die.) Our Chinese teacher, jiang laoshi, says that we she volunteers in hospices, she sees birdhouse that have birds in them.
The bird we decided to invest in and build a house for is the Purple Finch or the Haemorhous Purpureus. The Purple Finch is a normal-sized bird that sings and eat berries and bugs. The songs produced by the birds can be very soothing and calm. Many people enjoy the finches’ song and it can calm down people. Purple finches are moderately common in the area. The male finches perform certain arts to attract females and they will often hold a twig or stick in its beak while doing it.
Architecture style
Our house is based on modern architecture. This style of architecture usually contains lots of right angles, windows, and occasionally slanted roofs. The building style can be very wild in design but usually sticks to using squares and rectangles. It’s really the “anything goes” style of architecture.
The Design Process
The birdhouse we decided to build for the finch is a relatively simple birdhouse. There are two reasons we decided to use this house design. 1) It is simple and not that hard to computer model and construct in the real world. 2) Despite it being simple, it is very a beautiful and interesting looking piece. It has a modern house looking feel to it, and we sized the house perfectly for the purple finch. We did not style the house off any know piece of architecture. The house it mounted on a PVC pipe 1.9 in width. There should not be any messes within the house because the place where they eat is outside, and they like to keep a clean nest, or is this case, house. The way we constructed the house is we first made a basic sketch of the house. The sketch was not clean, since it is just a rough sketch. Then we made a paper model after the sketch. After that, we made a foam model based off the sketch and the paper model. Next, we decided to computer model the house using the dimensions and the model we decided on. Finally, we will laser cut the file into sheets of wood.
The Birdhouse
This birdhouse will not require much maintenance once installed. When painting the birdhouse, use oil based paint, as water-based paint will not stick to the silicon sealant. For further protection, it is recommended (but not required) to coat the birdhouse with a coating (like polyurethane), although, this is not required, but is recommended. To mount the pole to the birdhouse, line up the four holes on the mount to the four holes on the pole. The holes on the pole are threaded, so no nuts are required. Screw the included screws through the holes on the mount and into the tapped holes on the pole. Tighten each side properly. Optionally, you can use some thread locker to prevent the screws from falling out later. The pole must be inserted into the ground. There are many ways to do this, and it is up to you to find the best solution for your grass. Optionally, you can place a small bowl of water under the small roof. This requires filling of the bowl. Hopefully, these instructions will help you in taking care of the bird house.
Lincoln Park Manor
The place we decided to donate the birdhouse to be the Lincoln Park Manor. The Lincoln Manor is a rehabilitation, assisted living, and skilled nursing center. Being a rehabilitation center, this helps senior citizens, veterans, and other retired or elder people with physical, mental, and speech help. The reason why we decided to donate it to the Lincoln Park Manor is that, it is a
nursing center. Some of the patients could be going through a rough time, and/or stressed out. Birds can help the patients clam down, or keep them company. Birds can also produce a sweet song or tune that will sooth the mind. This song can help calm down the patient.