Harkening the call for grown-up, scaled down, design-forward aviaries.

Birdhouses are oft novelty man-made enclosures, but placing them within close proximity to your back door will help maintain populations of local species and add a healthy dose of old-time, rustic charm to your yard or balcony. Granted, old-time “rustic charm” and the plight of the piping plover might not compel an immediate click-through to the truly awesome examples of birdhouse architecture that we found. We get it.

But perhaps colorful, abstract, minimalist birdhouses will prove flappable or flight-worthy? Just trust us: birdhouses make for some enticing eye-candy for architecture and design obsessives. Here are 16 that will leave you cuckoo gawking.

Let’s start with this orange mid-century in cedar from Nathan Daniels’ Bird Haus collection, which is inspired by Case Study Houses. $79-$149

A whare-style, weather-proof birdhouse in bright red, with cedar floor. From Endemicworld for $109.

Via Pigeon Toe for $120, a hand-thrown porcelain base with a handmade paneled cedar roof. The braided leather hanging cord is vegetable dyed and made in the USA.

A birdhouse inspired by the Shasta campers of the 1950s. From the Etsy store of Jumahi, $17.

An architecturally forward birdhouse by Architectural Editions, $110.

By Twig & Timber, the Camera Shutter Birdhouse, $85.

Also by Twig & Timber, the minimalist Right Angle, $85.

Twig and moss birdhouse from Terrain, $38.

Limited edition from the Walnut “Canopy” Series by StudioLicious, $98.

A handcrafted equilateral triangle birdhouse made from bisque fired stoneware clay slabs covered in a dark metallic glaze. Via Paxton Gate for $130.

The solar birdhouse from Charles & Marie, $117.

Twig & Timber’s Flying Dutchman, $95.

A modern trapezoid birdhouse via Papernsnitch, another sampling from the Burd Haus collection, $79-$149.

Green roof birdhouse from Terrain, $45.

As seen in the lead image (pictured is the Richard, inspired by the Case Study houses designed by Richard Neutra), the J.R, named for J.R. Davidson’s Case Study House #1, is also from Modern Birdhouses ($195).

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