Everywhere you look on Route 1, there are birds.

In the Woodridge neighborhood of D.C. along Rhode Island Avenue just south of Mount Rainier, there’s Nido, a Mediterranean small-plate restaurant named for the word for “nest” in Italian and Spanish, which has an avian motif interior decor.

Farther north in Mount Rainier, there’s Bird Kitchen + Cocktails, which also has a bird-themed logo and decor.

In the SoHy area of Hyattsville, there’s Three Little Birds Sewing, which ups the bird quotient in its logo; Tanglewood Works, which has a lot of bird-themed items for sale; and Green Owl Design, an interior design firm and boutique. There are also several bird-themed murals found along Route 1.

That’s not to mention the various bluebird statues put up throughout Hyattsville as part of a 2003 public art campaign, including the sheet-metal clad “Vainglorious” sculpture at Centennial Park, or the yellow-crowned night heron sculpture in University Park.

All of these birds bring to mind the famous “Portlandia” sketch: “Put a bird on it!”

But there may be something to it. Just as up-and-coming hip areas tend to have microbreweries and even distilleries, they also tend to have birds. As everyone from Salon to the Wall Street Journal has noted, birds have been a fashion motif, adorned wallets and prints and even survived the inevitable backlash.