Last cut from Noeline's verandah outside Uralla • In 14 active carts • 188 left
Noeline's Woven Bird House
Noeline's Woven Bird House
Dispatched within 2–3 business days
Whole-Summer money-back promise
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Noeline's Woven Bird House
Woven From the Last Cut of the Back Paddock
Noeline Burkett, seventy-two. Sixty years of weaving, a mum who kept a woven basket under the verandah "for the little blue fellas", and six summers of pencil marks on the pantry door recording which nests the birds actually sheltered in. Her mum knew they'd duck into a basket. Noeline worked out how to make one they'd come back to.
188 left · last cut · no restock“It's not the drought that gets the little ones. It's having nowhere to duck into. A bird with no hidey-hole is just a target.”
14 Dec 2023 — hail, 20 min. Tank stand nest, tied in the hakea. Six blue wrens out at 5.40. Every one of them.
What arrives at your door
Why this one gets used, and the nest box on your tree doesn't
A nest box is made for eggs and chicks. What a blue wren needs on a forty-degree afternoon or when the hail comes through is somewhere to duck into, fast. A bird that weighs as much as a twenty-cent piece can't sweat and can't take a hailstone. “What a little bird needs in summer isn't a nursery. It's a hidey-hole.”
Straw laid in overlapping tiers like an old bush hut, sitting on a solid wooden disc that overhangs the room below. It takes the sting out of hail, throws the rain off the edge and casts shade over the doorway in the afternoon. “Mum's baskets had no roof. They'd go to mush by February. The hat was my first fix.”
A 35 mm entrance: big enough for a blue wren, a silvereye, a thornbill or a pardalote, too small for an Indian myna or a starling. “You make the door for the little ones. The big ones can find their own.”
Blue wrens live in family groups and shelter the way they live: all together. The round room has no dead corners and is sized for a little family pressed close. “They don't want a mansion. They want to be squashed in like sardines.”
Hand-woven tussock grass, tight enough to keep out the wind and rain, open enough to let the heat and damp escape, so it never turns into an oven on a hot afternoon. “A plywood box bakes. A tin one cooks. Grass breathes.”
A jute loop for hanging, and twine in the box to bind the body firm into a shrub, against a post or under the verandah. A little bird won't trust something that spins in a nor'wester. Dulcie Burkett's rule, and the one change Noeline says made the biggest difference on her pantry door: “A basket that swings is a basket nobody stays in.”
“People put water out for the birds in summer, which is good, but water is only half of it. Small birds like fairy-wrens and silvereyes are extremely vulnerable in heatwaves and severe storms, because they can't sweat, they carry almost no reserves, and they need cover within a few wing-beats. Historically they had it: old trees with hollows that take a century to form, thick native understorey, old sheds and tank stands. A lot of that has gone with clearing and tidier gardens, and introduced mynas take over much of what's left. A woven shelter can help fill that gap, but only if three things are right. It needs a roof that sheds hail and rain and shades the entrance, a door small enough to keep mynas out, and it has to be fixed firmly so it doesn't swing. A standard nest box is a different thing: it's built for breeding parrots, it heats up in the sun, and the mynas usually get there first.”
Dr. Rachel Tandy, Avian Ecologist
New England Woodland Bird Survey
Perfect for
Quality you can check yourself
- Hand-cut native tussock grass — undyed and unpainted, with no plastic, no wire frame and no synthetic fibre anywhere on it. Nothing in the room but the grass it was woven from.
- A real roof on a solid disc — look at the top. A flat nest-box lid sends the rain straight down to the door. This thatch overhangs it and shades it.
- The 35 mm door — measure it. It's the size that lets blue wrens and silvereyes in and keeps mynas and starlings out.
- Tie-down twine in the box — because a little bird won't trust a shelter that moves in the wind.
- Last cut, woven by hand — every nest woven by Noeline herself on her verandah outside Uralla. The farm is sold this summer. When these are gone, there is no restock and no second cut.
Noeline's Whole-Summer Promise
Storms don't keep to a timetable, so this promise doesn't either. Tie it up and give it the summer. If the nest isn't everything you hoped (the weave, the thatch, how it stands up to the weather), send it back for a full refund. No deadline, no forms, one email is all it takes. Free shipping Australia-wide.
A note on handmade variation and hanging it right: Every nest is woven by hand from natural tussock grass, so colour, thatch length and the shape of the weave vary from one to the next. That's the mark of real handwork, not a fault. Out in the sun and weather the grass will slowly fade to a soft silver-gold, the way an old thatched hut does.
Little birds learn their shelters before they need them, so hang it early, before the first big storm of the season. Tie it firmly into a thick, prickly shrub such as a grevillea, hakea or bottlebrush, or under the verandah, 1.5 to 3 metres up, with the door facing east, out of the hot afternoon sun and the westerly winds. Keep it a few metres from feeders and birdbaths and away from fences and branches a cat can climb. Look for a feather or a few droppings just inside the door after a storm. Three free things matter more than anything else: keep your thick native shrubs, put out a shallow dish of water in the shade on hot days, and don't put anything inside the nest; the birds prefer it bare. Once a year in autumn, take it down, shake it out, rinse it with plain water and let it dry in the sun before hanging it again in spring.
Product details
| Material | Hand-woven native tussock grass, layered straw thatch, wooden roof disc, twig finial, jute hanging loop |
| Finish | Natural, undyed grass and straw, no paint, stain or varnish; weathers to a soft silver-gold |
| Set contents | 1 Hidey-Hole Nest · tie-down twine · hanging card · shipped upright in a box |
| Dimensions (outer) | approx. 22 × 17 cm, including roof |
| Room | Round woven chamber, no corners, sized for a small family of little birds |
| Entrance | Round door, approx. 35 mm |
| Roof | Overlapping straw thatch on a solid wooden disc, overhanging the room to shed hail and rain and shade the door |
| Fixing | Jute loop plus tie-down twine, to be bound firm into a shrub, against a post or under the verandah, so it can't swing |
| Suits | Superb fairy-wrens (blue wrens), silvereyes, thornbills, pardalotes and other small garden birds · shelter from storms, wind and afternoon heat |
| Colour | Natural straw and tussock grass |
| Siting | In a thick native shrub or under the verandah, 1.5–3 m up, door facing east, out of the afternoon sun and away from feeders |
| Care | Once a year in autumn: take down, shake out, rinse with plain water, dry in the sun. Never disturb it while it's in use. |
| Made | Hand-woven by Noeline Burkett outside Uralla, New England NSW |
| Availability | Last cut — 188 only, no restock · 4.9 ★ from 1,120 reviews |
The Last Run
The Last Run
Some things are made by one pair of hands, for decades, and then never again.
The Final Series is the last work of craftspeople who are putting down their tools. No factory, no successor, no second batch.
Just the final pieces from their workshops, each one shaped by a lifetime of getting it right.
When they're gone, they're gone.
Free Shipping Australia-Wide
Free Shipping Australia-Wide
Free tracked shipping right across Australia
- Dispatched within 2–3 business days
- Every nest is packed upright in a sturdy box by Noeline's granddaughter Jess and posted from Uralla, NSW
- Approx. 22 × 17 cm including the thatched roof, with a 35 mm door
- Hand-woven native tussock grass, straw thatch on a solid wooden disc, jute hanging loop
- Tie-down twine and hanging card included
- No paint, stain or varnish — weathers to a soft silver-gold
- Noeline's Whole-Summer Promise: no deadline, full refund — just email info@cedarandtinco.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question? Here's how to reach us.
Got a question? Here's how to reach us.
Email us anytime at info@cedarandtinco.com. We answer Monday to Friday 9am–5pm and Saturday mornings 10am–1pm AEST. Every order is packed by Noeline's granddaughter Jess at the farm outside Uralla, so if you need something changed before it goes out, just say so.
Can I return it if it's not for me?
Can I return it if it's not for me?
Of course. Noeline's Whole-Summer Promise has no deadline. Tie it up and give it the summer, and if it isn't right for you, email info@cedarandtinco.com for a full refund. No forms, no argument, and shipping is free Australia-wide.