14 DAY TRIAL // Birds are awesome. At least that's what Rahim Petruska and his friends think. Enough that it drove them to launch a design project meant specifically to make life easier for birds and large human cities more appealing to them.
Birds live all over the place, but the really awesome ones usually have to be home-raised and held in a cage, because the big city isn't exactly the best environment, or the most pleasant for them.
Well, that's not counting pigeons and owls, but even those, or at least the former, gravitate towards the nearest park more often than not.
To make the city a bit more visually appealing and nourishing for our feathered friends, Rahim Petruska and some people he knows have created the Printednest.
It's pretty much exactly what it says on the tin: a 3D printed nest, or at least feeder, which will lure birds towards your windowsill.
At the moment, the Printednest is shaped like an egg with antlers, only the antlers are mounted near the bottom and act as the perch, much like a tree's branches do.
Anyone with a 3D printer can download the CAD files and print their own, but the project is primarily aimed at city dwellers, as it is believed that more birds should live there.
In addition to that, the people behind Printednest hope that everyone who makes a nest will register it with their website, to create a map of who else has a feeder. It's meant to “foster interconnectedness” according to them.
For example, at the time of this article's writing, there were 37 bird feeders spread across 24 cities in the world, in seven countries. You can see the whole, self-updating chart and world map here.
So if you're a bird watcher and have a 3D printer or have a 3D printing service you can call on, the files are waiting for you on Thingiverse, 3dfilemarket, and Shapeways. Pinterest has a collection of photos of existing Prinednests if you want to get an idea of what the thing will look like outside your window. The nests/feeders can also attach to high-rise buildings and various other outdoor structures, of course. Preferably, you should print the nest from polylactide (PLA for short), as it is biodegradable.
All things considered, the Printednest is, if nothing else, a much more nature-friendly project than 3D printing bees modified to produce concrete instead of honey.
