Exploring San Francisco through the lens of city blocks, Blocker is a regular series by Charles Hodgkins. Look for it on SFist every other Wednesday, around the lunching hour.

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Blocker, No. 28: Collingwood St. in the Castro / Eureka Valley

During our visit to this block of Collingwood, between 21st and 22nd Sts., we ask three residents which area neighborhood they most closely identify with. We get three different answers.

1: “Noe Valley – although I guess, technically, Noe Valley’s northern border is 22nd.”

2: (Shrug.) “I don’t know. Maybe the Castro? Eureka Valley? What is Eureka Valley? I suppose you can’t really call this a valley, since it’s up on a hill.”

3: “Do you live around here?”

Not quite the consensus we’re hoping for. But surely we can all agree that the 400 block of Collingwood is San Francisco’s preeminent home of sidewalk birdhouses.

On this chilly autumn afternoon just east of Twin Peaks, a civil war is being waged above our heads. The sky can’t decide whether it wants to be blue or grey. Sun rays refract through the alternately encroaching/retreating fog to create moody, vaguely pink lighting - the type you only really ever see within a few miles of a coastline.

The street itself has three distinct grades — slightly steep, mighty steep, flat — between the Saturday garage sale at the house below the guardrail at 21st, and the curly Q up at Collingwood’s southern terminus, where it bends sharply right, then left before heading east down the 22nd St. hill. We discover a wealth of eye candy along the way, from the modern extravaganza at 433 and classy art deco touches at 464-466, to the would-be rural look of the cast-iron gate and earthen driveway up at 480. The crest-of-the-world view from the atrium atop 495-497 also looks fairly enticing. There’s surprising range to the quiet homes here, well above the bustling Castro corridor.

But it’s the smaller, humbler homes hanging from most every sidewalk tree along the block that catch our wandering eyes more than anything else here. From one birdhouse to the next, it’s a crapshoot as to what the next one will look like, given how each features a different design theme. One is covered in small reproductions of classic movie posters; another is all about dogs; still another has a cat fixation; and in the meta move of the day, there’s even one outfitted with photos of birds. We also spot birdhouses slathered in images of crashing waves, classic San Francisco tourist attractions, the rainbow flag, and red roses.

Who’s responsible for this wholly unique public art? Turns out it’s the fellow eyeing us as we photograph the bird-themed birdhouse adjacent to his home right here on this block of Collingwood. He’s just pulled his Toyota wagon into his garage, and the next thing we know, Bill Farrell’s showing off his most recent mini-aviary creations that feature everyone from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Tom Cruise. Past commissioned works, he tells us, have showcased lovingly adorned images of Marlon Brando and Liz Taylor.

Sure, that’s a pretty cool multi-million house down the hill at 433. And the woodsy look of 480’s front takes us on an instant trip to the Sierra foothills without even having to slog through Vacaville or Livermore. But, hand-designed birdhouses? Well over a dozen of them on a single block? That’s the slant.

(Photos by the author.)