How bird house runs work
Bird houses are Hunter traps you build from logs and a clockwork, place on one of four spots on Fossil Island and fill with seeds. About 50 minutes later the house is full. Collect it for Hunter xp, bird nests and a few other bits, then reset it with fresh seeds. Each run takes a couple of minutes, and the xp comes in while you do something else.
What you need
- Bone Voyage. It opens Fossil Island and needs The Dig Site plus 100 kudos from the Varrock Museum.
- Levels. 5 Hunter and 5 Crafting for the basic house. Each better house needs more of both.
- Tools. Four clockworks, a chisel and a hammer. You get the clockwork back when you collect a house, so four last forever.
- Transport. A digsite pendant gives a Fossil Island teleport once you have used it on the strange machine in the House on the Hill. The magic mushtrees then link the spots. Click each mushtree once to unlock it before your first run.
- Supplies. Four logs of the right type and 40 seeds per run.
Bird house types
| House | Hunter level | Crafting level | Logs | Hunter xp each |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bird house | 5 | 5 | Logs | 112 |
| Oak | 14 | 15 | Oak logs | 168 |
| Willow | 24 | 25 | Willow logs | 224 |
| Teak | 34 | 35 | Teak logs | 280 |
| Maple | 44 | 45 | Maple logs | 369 |
| Mahogany | 49 | 50 | Mahogany logs | 480 |
| Yew | 59 | 60 | Yew logs | 612 |
| Magic | 74 | 75 | Magic logs | 969 |
| Redwood | 89 | 90 | Redwood logs | 1,200 |
Always place the best house you can. Each tier pays more xp per house and rolls better nests, and the log cost is small next to the time you save. The Crafting level is boostable, but the Hunter level to place the house is what usually holds people back. At the top end, four redwood houses give 4,800 Hunter xp a run.
These are the figures after the August 2026 Hunter changes, which cut bird house xp hard at the lower tiers and left redwood alone. Plenty of older guides and spreadsheets still list the old, higher numbers, so a plan built from them will promise far fewer runs than you will really need.
The route
- Teleport to Fossil Island with the digsite pendant, arriving at the House on the Hill.
- Take the mushtree to Verdant Valley and reset the two houses there.
- Take the mushtree to Mushroom Meadow and reset the house just north of where you land.
- Run south to the last spot by the entrance to the Tar Swamp, then teleport out.
Build all four houses in your inventory before you teleport. It saves a trip and keeps the run under a few minutes.
Seeds and nests
Each house takes 10 seeds. The seed type has no effect on xp or loot, so use the cheapest hops seeds you can find; hemp seeds and barley seeds are the usual picks. Check the price before you buy a few thousand.
Collecting a house rolls for bird nests. The chance of a seed nest depends on your Hunter level, not the house type, and climbs steadily as you level. The other nest rolls improve with both your level and the tier of house. A strung rabbit foot swaps some empty nests for ring or egg nests. Seed nests are the reason many ironmen keep doing runs long after they need the xp.
How many runs a day
A perfect player would collect every 50 minutes, but almost nobody does. Most people do a run when they log in, one between activities and one before they log off, and pair them with herb runs. Set your runs per day in the calculator to match how you really play, and it will tell you how many days a goal takes.
For other ways to level Hunter, see the Hunter training guide or compare methods in the OSRS Hunter calculator. If you farm on the same trips, the farming calculator covers the herb side.