CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

The Birdhouse House of Corona del Mar

For 30 years, Marlene Goren has lived in her blue-gray beach cottage in the 200 block of Fernleaf Avenue, with a front yard perfect for gazing over the ocean and plenty of neighbors and passers-by with whom to chat. And they usually want to chat about one thing — birdhouses.

For the past ten years, Goren has built a collection that she displays in front of her home. Birdhouses that look like diners, like lighthouses, like outhouses — you name it. From very rustic wooden abodes to more elaborate wispy wire homes, Goren’s birdhouses don’t attract nesting birds, although they do attract a lot of attention.

“I like it because little kids come by, and they all stop and look and talk to me,” she said recently when Corona del Mar Today stopped by to admire the collection of about two dozen birdhouses.

She began collecting the houses in the 1990s. Later her granddaughter asked to hang them to better show them off. One thing led to another, and now she has dozens on her hedges and from the roof of the home.

“Some people think it’s really juvenile, but I think it’s great,” she said.