Birds are flocking to Julien Dawiskiba’s yard where upscale residences await.

Driving down his quiet street in Lyndhurst, Dawiskiba's house sticks out as the one adorned with dozens of elaborate birdhouses, most of them several feet tall, standing on poles, resting on the front stairs, emerging from bushes and hanging on branches. He even lights them up each night, so that his glowing structures illuminate the neighborhood. On his front lawn one can find a Japanese teahouse, a model of the Chrysler Building, six- and eight-sided houses with sloping roofs and multiple entrances and even a wooden carving of a black panther.

"I must have made 300 in the last 16 years," he said. And the birds have taken notice. Sparrows have taken up residence in many of his structures with some even occupying multi-unit bird-condos. The trees and bushes around his house host a flurry of avian activity.

At 86 years old, Dawiskiba has been wood-working all his life, but has never had any formal training beyond one or two shop classes in high school. Born in Massachusetts, when he was five years old he and his family moved to Jersey City where his father worked as a butcher. During World War II he served in the United States Army in the Philippines, where he rose to the rank of corporal. Back at home he worked on electrical switchboards for the Square D Company for 25 years before retiring about 20 years ago.

He and his wife Mary, who he met through a blind date, moved from Jersey City to Lyndhurst 55 years ago to raise their two sons, Frank and John. Though Mary passed away 16 years ago, her husband keeps her memory alive with sculptures and carvings in the Asian styles she loved. His backyard has the feel of a small sanctuary with a bench, a small pond and a bridge he built himself for their 23^rd wedding anniversary on June 25, 1972. Over the tiny bridge, there's an Asian shrine with a bust of a woman's head in the middle and a carving of the sun and moon behind it. Nearby are two trees, a blue atlas cedar and a red leaf maple reminiscent of a large bonsai, that were just twigs when he planted them decades ago.

His entire basement is a workshop, with several rooms filled with wooden planks of varying sizes, old designs in need of touch ups, magazines with pre-made designs, photos of houses (some for birds, some for people) that he's seen and wants to recreate and dozens of cans of paint. At any given time the floor of the place would be so full of sawdust that he hooked up a vacuum to the bottom of his saw so the dust would be sucked up instantly as he worked.

"Sometimes I'll go down at 9 o'clock and won't come back up till two," he said. He devotes hours a day to designing, building and painting his works. Friends of his joke that he should be a guest on the Martha Stewart Show.

Though he's occasionally sold a few of his works, most of the time he's happy just to give them away as gifts. He's built things for his family, friends and neighbors and even continues to touch up and repair works after he's given them away.

"We get so many people who come here and say 'look at all those beautiful birdhouses,'" said neighbor Tom Hemhauser. "I say, 'That's Jules Verne, the Bird Man of Alcatraz.'" Hemhauser grew up in across the street from Dawiskiba and played with his sons, Frank and John, when he was a kid. One of Dawiskiba's multi-sided birdhouses adorns Hemhauser's front lawn.

"He's a very pleasurable person to have around," said neighbor Jan Kornak. "He's the kind of neighbor you never want to lose."