How to Carve Faces in Birdhouses

Draw a pencil sketch of the face you want to carve in one side of the birdhouse. Choose a side that's highly visible when the birdhouse is hanging in its location. If you want to carve a face into the front of the birdhouse, incorporate the holes and structures of the entryway into the face, transforming the entrance hole into a mouth.

Remove the material around the outside of the face. Use a conical grinding/carving tool/bit on an oscillating power cutter set at medium speed; adjust as necessary according to what you find comfortable. Cut around the outside of the outline, first tracing the outline, then expanding outward to remove a thin layer of wood, roughly 1/4 inch; adjust according to the thickness of your birdhouse's walls. This will leave the face area standing forward in relief.

Trace the lines of the outlined features within the face with a fine-tipped routing or carving tool/bit, cutting grooves along these lines about 1/4-inch deep.

Give dimension to the major facial features. Switch back to the conical grinding/carving tool and gradually grind away material to create the slopes, curves and valleys of the face. Unless the wood is very thick, these won't be as deep as the recesses of a real face would be, but even slightly recessing the wood will create a realistic effect. Carve slopes down the left and right sides of the nose, leaving the vertical center untouched. Do the same with the lips sloping down around all sides. Carve down the area around the eyes and the eyes themselves to create the effect of eye sockets.

Carve out the rest of the face. Grind down the thinnest layer of wood that you can from all areas that are still flat; even without precise shaping, the carving will look better with this removed. Carve gradual slopes beneath the cheekbones, running down to the jaw, and above the cheekbones, sloping down to the eye sockets. Shape downward slopes on either side of the forehead and at the top of the face.