A village of nations is currently taking shape at Lugnet. But the residents moving into the village will be the area’s small birds.
The project involves around 70 birdhouses, painted ahead of the 2027 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun in the national colours of a number of the participating countries.
Over the past six months, the work at Falu Municipality’s employment and labour market centre at Hälla, just a few hundred metres from the venue for this winter’s World Championships at Lugnet, has in part revolved around birdhouses.
The idea for the birdhouses came from a former employee at Lugnet i Falun AB, with the aim of strengthening biodiversity in the area.
“We had quite a lot of timber in storage that we wanted to put to good use by creating something lasting. We realised that a number of birdhouses painted in the national colours of some of the countries participating in this winter’s FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun would serve both purposes,” says Emma Wiklund, supervisor at Hälla.
In the spring, Tomas Frid began building the birdhouses. In total, around 70 were made.
“We then worked out the colour codes for all the flags we wanted to reproduce, which was quite a substantial task. At the same time, it was great fun discovering all the different flags from around the world,” says Henri Halldin, a general worker at Hälla.
Henri then applied the base colours of the respective flags to all the birdhouses, after which Emma Wiklund completed the national flag designs.
Now, around 70 birdhouses painted in the colours of national flags are ready, and they will be put up around Lugnet.
“We hope that birds will move into all of our birdhouses. They have been designed to suit some of the small bird species that are most common in the area,” says Emma Wiklund.
Birdhouses play an important role in nature. They compensate for the lack of natural nesting holes in old trees and increase the chances of small birds finding safe places to breed. During the winter, they also provide shelter from the cold and predators.
How do you look back on the work of making all these birdhouses?
“It has been great fun, but also a real test of patience. And I am very impressed by children in countries whose flags contain lots of intricate details that they have to paint when making their country’s flag at school. We who live in Sweden definitely have an advantage when you look at what our flag looks like,” says Henri Halldin with a smile.