Green-roofed bird houses

Image: Bluebird House by Sustainable Pet Design (courtesy of Stephanie Rubin)

Sustainable Pet Design ships unplanted, waterproofed bird (and dog) houses "with drainage material, filter fabric, and [their] special soil mix." Planted houses can be shipped to California addresses. The company can provide native plant sources to their customers. Each house is constructed of untreated red cedar planks, zero-VOC paint, and beeswax waterproofing.

Image: Chiclet Birdhouse by Sustainable Pet Design (courtesy of Stephanie Rubin)

These bird houses might be good gifts for folks who live in the Central Park neighborhood or in Los Angeles County and other areas of Southern California. Why? See the numbers below.

On Sunday, December 19, 2010, the 111th Christmas Bird Count in Central Park recorded 59 species of birds and 6,220 individual birds reported the NYC Parks Daily Plant blog.

Also, on Sunday, December 19, "six locations in L.A. County set new record rainfall totals"  reported the L.A. Times. The locations were Pasadena (3.45 inches vs. the record 1.5 inches in 1987); San Gabriel (3.2 inches fell vs. the record of 1.9 inches in 1970); UCLA (2.87 inches vs. the record of 2.82 inches in 1949); Downtown Los Angeles (2.3 inches vs. the record of 2.12 inches in 1921); LAX (1.63 inches vs. the record of 1.62 inches in 1984); and Long Beach (1.5 inches vs. the record of .52 inches in 1984).

To the birders and wildlife habitat designers who read this blog, to which species of birds are the Chiclet Birdhouse and Bluebird Home best suited?

Hat tip: Sunset's Fresh Dirt gift guide blog post.