Vandals destroy high-end birdhouses along city’s Riverfront

For a few Delaware vandals, Thomas Burke’s artwork was strictly for the birds.

Six of the Wilmington resident’s hand-crafted birdhouses — depicting homes from Andrew Wyeth paintings, famous residences and sprawling clubhouses — were destroyed along the city’s Riverfront Monday night.

Burke estimated the birdhouses, which have lined the walkway for more than three years, were worth about $46,000.

“I’m trying to make the city better with these birdhouses,” Burke said, “and these little jerks messed up my birdhouses.”

The famous birdhouse artist said vandals knocked six birdhouses off their perches and then proceeded to beat them up. He’s in the process of filing a police report, Burke said Tuesday night, and is ready to pay for some answers.

Burke is offering a $1,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to finding those who wrecked his houses, he said.

One of Burke’s favorites, the Augusta National Clubhouse — home of the annual Master’s Tournament and one of the world’s most famous gold courses — was destroyed Monday night.

“I talked to Tiger Woods about it,” Burke said. “It’s a great birdhouse.”

Recently, Burke’s birdhouses were on display at the Brandywine Festival of the Arts, where his high-class birdhouse creations served as the festival’s featured artist exhibit.

“I don’t get why people would do this,” he said. “It’s a neat thing.”

The birdhouses aren’t new to the Riverfront and they take a serious amount of time to complete, Burke said. Though Burke didn’t go into detail about the amount of time each birdhouse takes, he said most of the houses are beyond repair.

Burke builds each birdhouse by hand using recycled materials and an artistic vision to create mini-replicas of famous homes. In nearly four years, the 63-year-old artist said he hasn’t had any problems with vandalism before.

“I’ve got a lot of people on my side right now saying ‘I can’t believe those kids did that to your birdhouses,’ ” he said. “I just really want to know who did it.”

Contact Brittany Horn at (302) 324-2771 or bhorn@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @brittanyhorn.