Printednest is for the Birds

Many city dwellers are still interested in nature, they just don’t necessarily want to be surrounded by it. A trip to the zoo or the nearest city park is often just enough nature to scratch the itch without driving beyond cell phone reception. A new project named Printednest offers to add a little more nature to your urban existence through the magic of 3D printing.

Printednest is an open source project that aims to increase the number of birds winging their way around cities by building them a place to live. The project encourages people to print out birdhouses (using environmentally friendly PLA) that can be attached on or around houses.

The Printednest project wants to draw more birds back to the city. Courtesy of Printednest.

“Cornerstone of our philosophy is feedback from our users who are considered part of the team — we call it open cloud design. In our opinion there is no perfect design, no flawless product. 3D printing technology is evolving, perfecting itself; future generations are going to be bigger, better and they will be produced much faster than they are now.”

The standard design has an open front and an open back, along with antlers to provide a place for the birds to land. The back of the house is meant to be stuck to a window with two sided adhesive dual lock tape, along with additional support as necessary. The open back gives you a chance to watch the birds as they move in and build a nest.

If you aren’t keen about having a nest of chirping birds attached to your window, the open back of the house can also be used as a camera port. Set up the birdhouse in your garden or on the garage and stick a camera in the back. The plastic shell will help keep your camera dry and you’ll get up close videos or stills of the birds.

This project sounds fantastic for people with children. The kids can help assemble and hang the birdhouse, then watch as birds come in to build a nest. If you don’t happen to own a 3D printer, Printednest will sell you a complete kit and ship it to your home.

Below you’ll find a video about Printednest.

Source: Printednest