AA-2026-402117
On the image
Someone in this garden decided that ordinary bird feeders were for people without ambition, and built a walk-in aviary instead, complete with a fibreglass roof scalloped like a circus tent. The 1960s were a good decade for this kind of confident amateur engineering, when a man with wire mesh, some conduit pipe, and a Saturday afternoon could convince himself he was running a small zoo.
Inside the netting, the furnishings are a museum of good intentions: perches, hanging greenery, a scatter of white ornamental blocks that were probably meant to look architectural and instead look abandoned. The birds themselves are invisible, which is either very good camouflage or the honest truth about how these projects usually go once the novelty wears off.
The orange roof was the one flourish that mattered, the part visible from the house, the part that said something festive was happening even when nothing was. Everything else, the mesh walls, the dirt floor, the tangle of stakes, was strictly functional, built by someone who understood that enthusiasm photographs better than plumbing.
Visually related — by likeness
Backyard Walk-In Aviary with Scalloped Roof, 1960s Suburban Garden. 1960–1969. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-402117. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/backyard-walk-in-aviary-with-scalloped-roof-1960s-suburban-garden.
@misc{aaAA2026402117,
title = {Backyard Walk-In Aviary with Scalloped Roof, 1960s Suburban Garden},
year = {1960–1969},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-402117},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/backyard-walk-in-aviary-with-scalloped-roof-1960s-suburban-garden}
}TY - ART TI - Backyard Walk-In Aviary with Scalloped Roof, 1960s Suburban Garden PY - 1960–1969 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-402117 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/backyard-walk-in-aviary-with-scalloped-roof-1960s-suburban-garden ER -
From the community
Identifications, corrections, and discussion from readers — reviewed by a librarian before appearing here.
Sign in to add an identification, correction, or comment.
No notes yet — be the first to add what you know about this image.