The UES has gone cuckoo

Birdhouse-wrecker on loose

It’s all-out war on the Upper East Side — over birdhouses that residents painted and hung on trees to decorate their streets amid COVID-19, only to have them ripped down and trashed by a vandal in the middle of the night.

Someone has now posted handwritten “bizarre, serial-killer notes’’ on several local light poles and buildings in the past week defending the take-down of the artistic huts, community leader Justin Shea told The Post on Tuesday.

“I’m definitely disturbed by it,’’ Shea said of the latest salvo in the cuckoo case.

His block association, which covers East 81st Street between First and York avenues, also recently

received an e-mail, as did The Post, repeating the contents of the angry notes.

“The birdhouses (a misnomer, since birds never use them for shelter or as a nesting site) were removed from the trees because they were hurting the trees,’’ the person wrote in the e-mail.

“The constricting wires and zip ties . . . were choking the life out of them.

“Trees on NYC streets and in parks are city property,” the writer said.

“It is against city rules and regulations to hurt a tree in any way.’’

Calling the birdhouses “loud-colored’’ and “visual clutter,’’ the note added, “Imagine if everyone put their favorite trinket on a tree.”

Shea, who went to cops over the incidents — only to be told the issue was a civil matter — said his group won’t be cowed and will hang more birdhouses.

The Parks Department, which maintains the trees, did not respond to a request for comment.