A bird bath provides songbirds and other wildlife with a important source of drinking water plus a convenient place to bathe, and will draw birds to your yard like a magnet. Here’s a quick guide to choosing the best bird bath for your yard.
First, decide where you need to place your bird bath. Birds typically prefer a quiet, secluded spot, vs a place out in the open. Place your bird bath nestled in amongst a few trees or flowers, and if you’ve got birdfeeders in your yard as well, it is best to position the bird bath nearby.
The most common kind of bird bath is a saucer on top of a pedestal, but this style is actually not very attractive to birds. Birds like to bathe on the ground, and a shallow dish directly on the ground can bring more birds to your yard. Wild bird supply stores and garden centers sell a good variety of ground level bird baths. Another choice is to merely invert a clean garbage can lid and fill it with water.
If your heated bird baths are more than only 2 inches deep, you may want to position some giant stones within of it. Not purely will this stabilize your bird bath, but it will also create perches for smaller birds and can provide traction for any smaller critters such as mice or voles that slip into the water. Place the stones close to the edge of the bird bath, leaving area in the middle for larger birds to bathe.
Running water is awfully enticing to birds. Think about adding a tiny fountain or drip tube to your bird bath. Look for these in bird supply stores.
Larger is better. If you have got room to dig a small pond or other water feature to your yard, do it. Local birds plus wildlife will thank you. If you’ve got a naturally moist spot within your yard, think about turning it into a rain garden. This is nice both for the birds plus for the soil.
During the winter, birds within the wild can frequently eat snow for moisture, but if you live in a cold climate, think about investing in a heated bird bath or an electrical bird bath de-icer to provide birds with fresh water year round. A low-tech answer is to get dark colored bird baths, which is able to naturally gather the sun’s heat and will keep the bird bath water liquid when the air temps get chilly.
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