Humans don't seem to like anything simple or plain. In fact, 'the more decoration, the better' seems to be the credo of some. Yet even in more tasteful circles, a bit of decoration is still fine. This idea extends even to the simpler, more innocent minds and their subsequent ideas and structures, such as decorative bird houses.

Decorative bird houses, with emphasis on the first word, decorative, are becoming more popular in our consumer-driven society. It used to be that a bird could be happy with a simple box with a hole in the side and a roof over its head. But no, some crazy wrens down the street decided that they were going to "do up" their place with a splash of paint on the outside (and later the interiors too found themselves covered in powder blue). It's almost an addiction.

This spurred the whole neighborhood and soon everyone was making improvements on their homes. This is not to say that they could be called decorative bird houses at this juncture, oh, no. It's merely that suddenly what each bird had just wasn't good enough for him or her (even though other starlings and finches and others yet secretly envied their neighbors as they scrambled to adorn their own homes, what with all of the fancy perches, feed troughs, and aluminum siding that was cropping up). Our fine feathered friends really enjoy the efforts we put into their homes.

Before long decorative bird houses could be seen all up and down the lane, eventually extending throughout the land. Sparrows and goldfinches strove to out-do one another in a race that rocked the locality. Even crows and ravens, previously beyond the materialism and insecurity of other birds, soon found themselves coveting specially-decorated houses with the intent of ignoring their own plumage for wood, metal and paint. At special times of the year some would even put brightly colored lights up, further ornamenting their domiciles.

Yet this competition and envy led only to a larger problem. Soon some of the mammals began noticing the opulent structures which had previously simply existed without much notice. In fact, many of the houses had blended quite well with the surrounding trees and shrubs, but now began to look like the larger, equally equipped human habitations. Yet these were smaller, less protected, and tempting to the eyes of the chipmunks and squirrels. They began a slow advance that would amaze not only all of the birds, but the humans who looked on, day after day, in amazement at the war that ensued for beautiful homes.