The Cutest Backyard Bird Village To Try For Yourself

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Nothing signals that spring has arrived quite like the chitter chatter of birds in your yard. So if this year, you're looking to attract even more, one TikTok creator has an incredibly charming idea that could be worth replicating yourself. @krotchkriket shared how their dad totally transformed his otherwise mundane backyard fence into what he dubbed "Jackson Boulevard" — a miniature bird village complete with themed feeders, a picnic table, and even a little camera to watch the visitors arrive.

This clever dad's idea was to, instead of placing bird feeders throughout the yard, install a shelf onto his fence to act as a platform for his many whimsical feeders. And from there, it gets even more creative, as a tiny "town" for wildlife quickly emerges. He handcrafted a wooden painted taco truck, a tiki hut serving "piña coladas," a miniature winery, and even a truck stop stand with signs outside for "hot dogs," amongst others. Alongside the box feeders, he also put up a picnic-style bench for squirrels — just the thought of squirrels eating from a picnic bench may be the most adorable part of it all.

Outside of the obvious novelty factor of creating a feeder village like this, there are actually many benefits to having a bird feeder in your yard from the perspective of helping support local wildlife. According to the National Audubon Society, more than 100 North American bird species supplement their diets with feeders, which act as a reliable food source when natural options are more limited, such as in the winter.

While @krotchkriket's dad's version is extremely creative (and, we can assume, time-consuming, especially with all the details in each individual feeder), the basic premise is easy to recreate yourself. You just need to install a shelf made of exterior-grade wood, such as oak or cedar, onto a fence. Make sure to use brackets and outdoor screws to keep the shelf secure. If you don't have a fence, you can instead install a wooden post with multiple hooks to hang feeders from. Either way, the idea is to group many feeders together in one dedicated "village" instead of spreading them around.

Once you have designed the structure that works best for your garden, you can build or buy a few bird feeders and start getting creative. Amazon has plenty of basic feeders, like this Valley Splendor Cedar Hopper Bird Feeder, to use as a base, and water-based acrylic paints like this set from Apple Barrel are safest for wildlife. Give each feeder a "theme" and then fill each one with different foods and seeds to attract a range of stunning birds, depending on where in the world you live. For example, sunflower seeds attract finches and chickadees, and suet attracts woodpeckers. 

Finally, if you want to watch them come and go without disturbing them, installing one feeder with a small HD camera will allow you to observe your bird village in action. You can find a range of bird feeder cameras designed for this very purpose online, which will give you a front-row seat for nature in action. The more feeders that are grouped together, the more easily you'll be able to observe wildlife interacting, and the small decorative touches like the ones in this TikTok video make the whole setup that much more magical.