While she’s traditionally not a LEGO fan, lately Ideas is striking all of the right chords with my wife! First, they came out with the awesome (and quickly sold-out) LEGO Research Institute 21110 set of female scientist minifigures, which appealed to my wife professionally (what with her being a  science teacher and all). And now, the latest fan-designed set plays on my wife’s favorite recreational interest: birding! Coming in January 2015–Birds 21301, the ninth Ideas set!

UPDATE 1/1/2015: The LEGO Birds set is available for order online today!

LEGO Ideas is quickly becoming one of my family’s favorite themes for its diverse assortment of unique concepts. From Ghostbusters to Exo-Suits to Mars Rovers to Deloreans, Ideas (formerly CUUSOO) has given us some of the most cool and unexpected sets of the past few years. And this winter, it will enter a new domain: nature! For the first time ever, birding fanatics will be able to assemble their very own brick-built birds!

I am by no means an ardent birder, so when I heard that a LEGO Ideas Birds set had been approved for winter 2015, I immediately got nervous that the chosen birds were going to be something crazy and exotic and I’d have to ramble on ignorantly like I did when I discussed the Speed Champions set (another theme that is a little bit outside of my sphere of knowledge).

Thankfully, I was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief when I saw the actual LEGO Ideas #09 set that’s on the way–all three Birds LEGO builds in the set are ones that are so recognizable, even I know what they are at a glance: a hummingbird, a bluejay and a Robin!

Each of the three Birds will have a little name plate to stick on its base with the birds’ scientific name on it–maybe this can ignite a little spark of love of ornithology in all of us!

The LEGO 21301 Birds project was designed by Tom Poulson (user DeTomaso on the LEGO Ideas site). Tom wanted to design something really different and organic, which led to him being inspired to create this set when he spotted a robin in his vegetable patch.

The Ideas Birds set will contain 580 pieces and retail for $44.99 in stores. That’s a little under 8 cents per brick–a terrific price by almost any standard when it comes to LEGO sets, and an even better value when you take into consideration how unique this user-designed set is. At $45, I consider this very special set to be a real steal!

Each of the birds comes with a different type of stand: the hummingbird gets a clear flight stand, the robin gets a wooden branch, and the bluejay gets a metal perch. I really like how the different stands mix things up!

The 21301 Birds set is scheduled to be released in January 2015 exclusively through the online LEGO Shop and the brick-and-mortar chain of LEGO Stores. Hopefully this set won’t be as ridiculously limited as the Research Institute set was, as that set was literally sold out online within a day and in most stores within a week. It’d be a real shame if those who wanted it couldn’t get this fantastic wildlife set!

What do you think of the latest AFOL-created Ideas set? Would you like to see more sets like this in the future, or do you consider this a set to be for the birds (sorry, I couldn’t help myself)?