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Most backyard birdwatchers have feeders set up — often multiple, in fact — but a bird bath is sometimes an underutilized option to help provide for the birds.

Birds, like other living things, need water to survive. While some get their water needs from food sources, including plants or insects, others visit sources of water like puddles or streams to meet their daily needs. You can help get fresh water to the birds, giving you a better chance to spot them in your yard, by providing a bird bath.

So, what do you need to consider when placing a bird bath to attract the maximum number of birds to it?

Key Takeaways

• Think about placement: Where you place your bird bath makes a big difference. Birds need to feel safe, so putting the bath a few feet away from trees or bushes gives them a quick escape from predators.
• Choose the right design: A good bird bath doesn’t need to be fancy. It should be shallow, like a natural puddle, and made from materials that offer a secure grip for the birds. Whether you go for a classic concrete design or something more modern, what’s important is that it’s user-friendly for your feathered friends.
• Keep it clean: Birds aren’t fans of dirty water any more than we are. Clean water is the key to attracting birds to your bath. Regularly change the water and give the bath a good scrub with a simple vinegar solution to keep it fresh. This not only keeps the birds happy but also encourages them to keep coming back.

Placement

When employing a bird bath to attract birds, placement is key.

You want birds to feel safe visiting it, so it’s important to place your bird bath in the vicinity of some cover, as they’ll likely swoop in to visit and then retreat to the trees or bushes to avoid predators.

While your backyard may seem as safe as can be, backyard songbirds still face threats that make them wary of spending too much time in the open. Sharp-shinned hawks’ diets are about 90 percent songbirds, for example, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds.

You don’t necessarily want to place it right up against a bush, but a few feet away at a distance that gives birds a quick escape route should do the trick.

Putting your feeder in a shady spot under the cover of a tree can also help keep the water clean in hot weather.

Dimensions, Material and Presentation

You want to make sure that birds can access the water in a bird bath. This means that the bird bath has to be made of a material that gives birds a safe footing and a gentle slope down to the water so that they can reach it.

The best bird bath is going to be shallow, similar to a puddle that a bird would find itself drinking from naturally. Bigger isn’t always better — we’re talking about birds that may measure just a couple of inches long, after all, so deep water doesn’t provide much extra benefit.

When you think of a bird bath, you probably think of the old concrete-style pedestal bird bath that’s been around forever, but it doesn’t have to be this style.

You can make your own bird bath or buy one. There are hanging bird baths, ones that stay on the ground, metal or synthetic materials, and numerous other choices you can make when purchasing a bird bath.

Water – Keep It Clean and Fresh

No matter what bird bath you choose, the most important thing is going to be what the birds are there for in the first place: water.

Keeping water fresh and clean is incredibly important. Warm water on a hot summer’s day doesn’t sound great to you, and it probably won’t sound great to the birds either. Keeping your bath out of direct sunlight can help keep water fresh longer.

Conversely, when the temperatures drop below freezing, frozen water isn’t going to do the birds any good.

Bird bath heaters are also available on the market to help keep water from freezing. And you may want to consider a sunny spot during the winter since you don’t have to worry about water getting too warm. This is one advantage of a bird feeder that you can move.

In the summer months, changing the water frequently isn’t just a matter of personal preference, either. Your bird feeder needs regular cleaning, ideally every couple of days, to avoid the buildup of bacteria.

The National Audubon Society’s suggested mix is an easy one with no chemicals necessary. The group suggests rinsing and scrubbing your bath with a solution that’s nine parts water and one part vinegar.

Keep your bird bath’s water fresh and you’ll have birds using it in no time.

Added Features

Some bird baths are fancier than others, with water fountains that keep water moving at all times, or you can buy a little fountain product that sits in the water and sprays it upward.

It’s not absolutely necessary, but some people believe that a little moving water can be more effective in attracting birds than a standard puddle.

In Conclusion

When you’re working to attract birds to your bird bath, you can typically keep things simple. A shallow, open dish set on the ground in a safe space a few feet from a tree or bush may be enough to attract birds, but like with anything, there are always more options out there.

Bird feeders run the gamut from expensive stone structures to a simple homemade design. As long as you’re providing fresh, cold water that isn’t frozen, you’re on the right track.

Happy birding!

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