How to Get a Birdhouse in Aloft

Birdhouses are an important addition to any island in Aloft, as they attract birds, which increases the island's animal count. This is especially crucial on islands you’ve cleansed of corruption, as these islands are often devoid of animals or home to infected ones that require curing. Follow this guide to craft your first birdhouse!

How to Craft a Birdhouse in Aloft

The journey to owning a birdhouse begins with locating a broken one. You can't get the recipe to craft a birdhouse without finding an existing broken one first. Certain islands have these broken birdhouses, and you can repair them to gain access to their blueprint.

Step 1: Find a Broken Birdhouse

To identify whether an island has a birdhouse in need of repair, open your Field Guide. If there’s a task listed that tells you to repair X number of birdhouses, you’re in the right place.

From personal experience, I found my first birdhouse on the southern island of the far-left island cluster of Emerald Isles (see the map screenshot above). This was the last area I visited in the biome after starting on the far right and working my way across. If you’re following a similar path, this could be where you’ll encounter it as well, though other players have found their first birdhouse elsewhere.

Step 2: Repair the Birdhouse

Broken birdhouses contribute to ecosystem damage in Aloft. Once you’ve located the broken birdhouse, repairing it requires these materials:

To repair the birdhouse:

1. Equip your Stone Hammer.
2. Approach the broken birdhouse.
3. Interact with it by hitting it with your hammer (left mouse click).

Step 3: Sketch the Birdhouse

Once repaired, you’ll need to sketch the birdhouse to unlock its recipe. For this, you’ll require x1 Paper and x1 Charcoal. Paper can be found on various tables and ledges around Aloft, while Charcoal comes from burnt tree stumps. Alternatively, you can craft Paper. You’ll also need a Sketchbook. If you don’t have one yet, it can be crafted directly from your crafting inventory (press I and then go to the Crafting tab) or a Workbench using these materials:

With your Sketchbook in hand:

1. Equip it from your hotbar.
2. Stand in front of the repaired birdhouse.
3. Hold the right mouse button to activate the sketching mode.
4. When the gray silhouette of the birdhouse appears, click the left mouse button to sketch it.

After completing the sketch, the Birdhouse recipe will be unlocked, and you’re ready to craft one of your own.

Step 4: Crafting a Birdhouse

With the recipe unlocked, you can now craft birdhouses using your Building menu (go to the Farming tab after you press B). Here’s what you’ll need to build a birdhouse and where you can find the materials:

Once you build a birdhouse, you can place it anywhere on any island and it will attract a bird. At the moment, you can only attract one bird to an island, no matter how many birdhouses there are.

Why Build a Birdhouse?

Adding a birdhouse to an island encourages birds to visit and live there. This is the only way to increase the bird population in-game, making birdhouses essential for restoring the ecosystem of corrupted and damaged islands. If you need other animals to add to the island's ecosystem, you'll need to bring them over from an island with too many animals or use the in-game command console to spawn animals.