Too hot for birdies

So there was recently this birdhouse competition here in North Carolina, and I entered.  I don’t normally enter contests unless there’s something in it for me–like a money or a cool prize.  The whole “external validation” thing–soooo not me.  And yes, I am also an actor.  Go figure.  But I entered because I thought it would be interesting to make a Fobot birdhouse.  You’d think that with all the requirements–hole for the bird, roof, perch, etc.–it would be too limiting, but I found the opposite to be true.  The more limitations, the more creative one has to be.  So I came up with the “Nest-O-Matic 3000” here.  Glass bowl fuel filter head (complete with nesting materials and eggs), toy tool box, wrenches, tartlet tin full of birdseed, valve lifter springs,  porcelain faucet escutcheons.  Kinda cool.  Never intended it to be functional, so I entered it in the “Flights of Fancy” category.

We came in second.  Which I’m fine with (remember, no prizes).  But here’s the funny part–the judges scorecards were open to public viewing.  Perfect scores on creativity, craftsmanship, design.  But when it came to functionality, Nest-O-Matic was marked down because “Since it’s made of metal, it might be too hot for birds to live in”.

Too hot for the birdies?  Are you high?  Do you really think I’m going to put this outside for the finches to build a nest in?  I haven’t stopped laughing for days.