FOR THE BIRDS
... and the people too!
Ava Richards, Northern Cardinal, digital image, 2019
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Blue Jay Feeder
Danielle, Ian, David, Bryan and Karlie
The Blue Jay
Scientific name: Cyanocitta Cristata
Male blue Jays are blue birds with a white belly and feather tips and black markings on the feathers and face. Females are smaller than males but have the same markings. They live in oak and pine woods, suburban gardens, and towns. They forage in trees and shrubs on the ground. They come to feeders for seeds or suet. The young leave the nest after 17-21 days. Both parents will bring food to young before they leave the nest. They are omnivorous, and they eat mostly veggie matter including many kinds of nuts, seeds, insects, grain, berries, and some fruit. Blue Jays are in the Crows and Magpies family.
Architecture style
The architecture that inspired this bird feeder is the La Warr Pavilion created by Serge Chermayeff. This building is a modern building with windows, curves, and more box-like shapes that give a modern house look. You can see the shapes of this architecture in our bird house because our bird house is also very boxy just like the architecture. We did have a cylinder in our bird house for those curves to make it look even more modern, but we had to revise it to a rectangular prism so it could be laser cut. The design of having an open feeder was inspired by the large number of windows on the building and the blocky-ness.
The Design Process
The original design was made by Danielle Bolt, but the rest of the group contributed to make the design safer for the birds and a little bit smaller. Going from there, a cardboard model was made, and using that, we also made some more changes, which were added to the CAD model. During this time, we worked on figuring out where to send our feeder, and originally, we were planning to send it to a national park, but they we were unable to get a final answer, so we moved on to a different place. During the building process, we ran into a problem with how we were going to add the bottom piece. With the help of Mr. Bottelier, our engineering teacher, we were able to come up with a way to add it without completely changing our design. The next couple of days were spent on just getting work done, including finishing the CAD model and starting on the Adobe net (for laser cutting) and writing up the rest of the information for the website.
The Birdhouse
VITAS Hospice in Dayton
Hospice is a place where people go who have a limited amount of time to live and need medical care until then. Many of them are bed-bound or can’t go anywhere. So, we made this bird feeder to bring joy to the people who need it most. Hopefully we can develop a bond with the people at hospice and visit the residence there.
