Copenhagen’s Urban Birdhouses

Thomas Dambo—you may remember him from a couple of months ago, where he constructed giant troll-like wooden sculptures and hid them around the city of Copenhagen—has been doing other stuff as well, such as building birdhouses for the city’s avian population.

Under the title of “Happy City Birds”, Dambo and his team has built over 3,500 birdhouses since 2006 and installed them across the city grouping them on tall poles, or against buildings, or spacing them out on trees. The idea for Happy City Birds, Dambo says, began when he was looking for a way to do street art in a positive way, that everyone can understand. Not everyone understands grafitti, but even Thomas’ grandmother understands the purpose of birdhouses.

As all of Thomas Dambo’s projects, all of the birdhouses are made from recycled materials and scrapwood. Even the paint was donated by a company who had a truckload of wrongfully toned paint to dispose.

Aside from Copenhagen, some of Dambo’s birdhouses can also be found in many other Danish cities and other countries as well.