Bird Bath Basics

Give your birds a place to drink and bathe. Our decorative and practical bird baths are available in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors and are great for attracting birds. 

 

Birdbath Basics

Birds use baths both for drinking and for bathing, and almost every species of bird in your yard will visit a birdbath. This includes both the common feeder-visiting birds and other birds that rarely visit feeders, such as black phoebes, robins, flickers, and bluebirds. While baths will not have as much constant activity as a seed feeder, their benefits to birds are significant and they have minimal ongoing costs (no seed to buy!) making baths an ideal feeder complement.


Birdbath Care

Birdbath water should be replaced at least every few days, the exact frequency depending on bird usage, evaporation, other sources of litter (i.e. overhanging trees), other users (raccoons, squirrels, etc.) and water capacity. During summer's heat, very shallow dishes may need to be refilled every day or even twice a day. If practical, giving your bath a quick rinse with your garden hose before each refilling will go a long way towards keeping it clean. Barbara rubs the birdbath brush over ours quickly between each filling, which means cleaning it is never an ordeal. If more serious cleaning is needed, the next step is to use a firm-bristled scrub brush to remove grime and dried-on debris before rinsing and refilling. This should be adequate for most cleaning; on occasion you may wish to apply a specialty bird-safe birdbath cleaning product or a low concentration (10% or less) bleach solution before scrubbing, rinsing, and refilling. Just rinse very thoroughly if you use any substance beyond water in the bath.

 

Birdbath Selection

Some baths are simply dishes set on the ground, while others stand on pedestals, attach to poles or deck railings, or have chains or wires for hanging. Your choice of bath will have some effect on the birds you attract: very small baths will discourage large birds; lower baths will be visited more often by ground-feeding birds such as quail. Choose a shallow basin to allow small songbirds to bathe in your bath, at most 1.5" deep. If the dish is too deep, stones placed in the bath may allow smaller birds to bathe safely, rather than just perching on the edge to drink. In general though, almost any bath that isn’t obviously too deep will attract birds—get one that looks good and fits in your yard!

We carry a wide and always changing selection of freestanding or hanging glass, metal, concrete-aggregate, and plastic birdbaths. Light and durable, Metal Bird Baths make it easier for you to re-position your water source. These baths can be left out in freezing or frosty conditions without the fear of them cracking or chipping. Plastic Bird Baths are made of durable plastic, these baths sides are sloped so birds can move to their desired bathing depth. The texture of the dish provides grip for birds as they move through the water. They can be used in tall or short stands and most can easily accept Water Wigglers to keep the water moving, or heaters during winter. Decorative glass baths come in many designs and can be used with short and tall stands. Hanging baths are available in recycled aluminum, glass, or plastic versions.

 

Accessories to Attract More Birds

A couple of really useful items include our Water Wigglers, designed to move water in the bath to attract birds, which has a side benefit of preventing mosquitoes from breeding in your bath, as the water moves too much for them! Another item is a Dripper-Mister. This device clips to most birdbaths and can be set to either drip or send a soft spray over your birdbath. Most birds will perch on the end of the dripper to grab drops of water before they fall, or if set as a mister, hummingbirds love to play in water, and you may find hummingbird cavorting in the mist!

Black-capped Chickadees love the Dripper and hummingbirds love mist! The Dripper-Mister gives you both options...