One of my favorite parts of our new apartment rental is that it has a front porch. I don’t what it is, but I’ve always liked front porches more than back decks, patios or other outdoor living spaces.

Soon after moving in, I noticed that we have a lot of lively, pretty birds around our apartment and got an idea. Hmm…front porch + birdies = birdhouse!!

Etsy had quite a few adorable birdhouses to choose from. Click on any of the photos below to go to the listing on Etsy.

After looking at about 100 different birdhouses on Etsy, I decided on this affordable ($9.00!), red bird feeder made from an old barn door. I loved the rustic look of this one.

Luke used a staple gun to hang it from the awning over the porch and we filled it with some seeds we got at a local nursery.

Within minutes our yard was filled with birds chirping away. We went inside to give them some privacy to explore the new restaurant in town.

The one bird we saw the most of was this black & blue, regal-looking Stellar’s Jay.

This guy LOVED the seeds we put out but had a hard time landing on our “small bird” sized feeder. He kept sitting below it to check things out,  flying up to the feeder, deciding he was too large to land and kicking the house before flying away in the hopes that he could free some of the seeds.

It took about a half hour before be finally devised a plan to let him perch on the house just long enough to get his fill. It was quite entertaining to watch from our living room! I was starting to think we could just pitch our TV with all the action our bird feeder was supplying.

Who knew a tiny wooden bird house could make our temporary rental feel like home? :)