跨物种庄园

INTERSPECIES ESTATE

PROJECT SUMMARY

The objective of this project was to create a small, secure housing estate for important residents — birds. Birdhouses that can serve, amongst others, as house sparrow’s nesting places were incorporated into a mural depicting a snag tree. The piece brings together art, sustainability and education.

Snag trees often do not look perfect. They bear hollows, scars, cracks and dried branches.  As they slowly turn into humus, they are plagued by infections. Even with a dead core, old trees can continue their existence for hundreds of years acting as hosts for thousands of different species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, fungi, lichen and plants. They make their survival possible, acting as life-saving arks. A snag tree can be considered to be a superorganism.

House and tree sparrows, as well as tits will find a home in the branches of our mural - the snag tree. These birds’ diet consists largely of parts of insects, including larvae and eggs, so in summer they hunt mosquitos. One family of tits can consume 75 kg (165 lbs) of insects in a span of one season.

For the last few decades small birds have been in trouble and their numbers have been dwindling. They cannot find enough food (insects and seeds), while their main hiding places, such as bushes and old trees, disappear from the landscape. Living in constant fear of predators, in urban environments mostly cats and dogs, they are trying to make do in a changing, polluted habitat.

We arranged a safe housing estate for them.

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