James M. Keller I The New Mexican
CubeBirdhouse
DULUTH, MINNESOTA
Red Double-bell Birdhouse HOUSTON, TEXAS
o judge from the imaginative birdhouses in Anne Schmauss’ new book, Birdhouses of the World, some birds are inhabiting stylish architecture of the sort most of us can only dream about. Schmauss is well known to birders in the Santa Fe area. Her column, “For the Birds,” alerts readers of The Santa Fe New Mexican to comings and goings among the flying feathered folk, and for 20 years she has co-owned the store Wild Birds Unlimited in Santa Fe, which purveys avian necessities and serves many locals as a hub through which to share information about the species they spy through their binoculars. On Saturday, May 10, bird aficionados will flock to her store to celebrate the launch of Birdhouses of the World (Stewart, Tabori & Chang/Abrams). The book spotlights birdhouses created by 28 designer-builders around the world, ranging from extravagant edifices in the Hansel and Gretel mold to sleek modernist structures of minimalist chic. Pasatiempo: A basic bluebird house is one thing, but the birdhouses you feature in your new book are really extraordinary. What was involved in gathering the photographs for this book? Schmauss: My sisters and I had written a previous book for Abrams, For the Birds, which was about feeding birds, and for that we mostly used existing photographs that we bought from professional photographers. This time it was a different story. A lot of people who built the birdhouses that are highlighted in this book submitted their own photographs, but most of them just weren’t of high enough quality for Abrams. In some cases I hired photographers across the country and sent them out to people’s homes and workshops to photograph the birdhouses. For some of the smaller ones, I had the builders ship them to me and I hired a local photographer. Pasa: Did you find that people were eager to share the houses they had constructed? Schmauss: They really were. Most of these folks consider these to be works of art that they’ve created, and they were very excited when I contacted them about showing their work in my book. Especially the guys who build just a handful of houses in their workshop — these fellows were so psyched! And I do mean fellows. It was almost all men. Believe me, I
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PASATIEMPO I May 9-15, 2014
looked hard for women who built cool and interesting houses, but there just weren’t many. I don’t know why that is. But these fellows were so excited to be involved. Pasa: Have you seen most of these birdhouses in person? Schmauss: I’ve seen quite a few of them, but I haven’t seen all of them. They are all over the place — Japan, the Netherlands, London. There are lots of people who make birdhouses, mostly in the United States and Canada, but less in other parts of the world, I discovered. Pasa: In the book, you mention that some were built specifically for this project. Schmauss: Only a couple. There is only one that I really commissioned. That was from Jerry Shoemaker, a furniture maker I know personally in Albuquerque. He is really into the Arts and Crafts movement, so I asked him to come up with a design and build a birdhouse in that style. My editor describes the birdhouses in this book as a “curated collection.” I didn’t create it, and in only that one case did I cause it to happen. Pasa: Shoemaker’s birdhouse mimics an actual “human house.” You have a couple of others in the book that are modeled after existing homes. One is of the main house at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in California, and another is of Cantitoe Corners, which is Martha Stewart’s house in New Bedford, New York. Oddly, the latter is installed in Wilmington, Delaware. Do you think Martha Stewart ever saw it? Schmauss: Those are both by Thomas Burke. He builds these elaborate birdhouses, and he has built houses for members of the royal family and for very wealthy clients on Park Avenue. If you are wealthy and want a birdhouse built on the model of your home, he’s your man. He loved Martha Stewart’s house, and when he was featured on CBS’s Sunday Morning show with this particular birdhouse, they had to secure permission from her to talk about her house, so she was certainly aware of it. Some of his houses cost $10,000-$20,000. That Skywalker Ranch birdhouse is the size of a Mini Cooper. Pasa: What do you think the birds see when they encounter birdhouses like this? Would these be their dream homes? Schmauss: Most birds don’t nest inside a birdhouse; most nest in a tree or a shrub or on the ground. Cavitynesters are just looking for a cavity, and it’s important