Sometimes we can’t travel to the woods or marshes or mountains or seashore to see birds in nature. There are many reasons, such as expense, work, time, logistics, family, disability. For those of us who love nature but who can’t venture out much to see wildlife in their natural habitat, it helps to attract birds and such to where we live. Providing food, water, shelter, and nesting possibilities is a great way to bring them close. Birds are especially responsive given how mobile they are, and we actually have a lot of overlap in lifestyle with them: we are both primarily daytime creatures, and we both perceive the world mainly through sight and sound.
It’s their differences of course that make birds so exquisitely beautiful and fascinating. Watching them taking care of business and interacting with each other is endlessly absorbing.
The half-acre lot where I live in the maritime Pacific Northwest has as much as I can to attract birds. The vegetation is a mix of native vegetation and landscaping and gardens I’ve put in over the past few decades to replace bare lawn. It provides shelter, nesting and food for a variety of kinds of birds. We have no cats or dogs. We safely maintain seed, suet and hummingbird feeders.
And we have birdbaths in summer. Winter has plenty of wild water everywhere so there’s no need for birdbaths from October to April. But summer is extremely dry in this part of the country. We’ve had less than half and inch of rain since May this year, a record breaking low. As global climate change settles in, our summers are getting longer and drier too. Keeping clean fresh water available is a kindness to wildlife, and, as a bonus, it brings wild creatures within our view from the house. Summer is nesting season too, so we can watch fledglings learning the ropes, growing up fast. Given how much traffic birdbaths get it’s critical to keep them clean. Dump/drain, scrub, disinfect often. At this time of year you’d be amazed by all the dirt, feathers, poop and all that collects in them — daily cleaning is necessary in the small birdbaths, weekly in the big one. It’s a pleasant ritual for me.
My birdbath situation has evolved over the years. Here’s what I have currently.
Out in the yard are two fairly deep baths, several inches deep. My oldest is a moderate size ceramic bowl on a pedestal in my tiny orchard. Mostly it’s the larger birds who visit there, like robins, doves, towhees, flickers, blackbirds. I don’t see much of this action since it’s surrounded by trees and bushes, and if I get within view, the birds fly off.
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After seeing warblers visiting a neighbor’s fountain, a few years ago I set up a large ceramic pot with a pump to spray water onto a dish. It was a huge success, bringing in warblers as well as hummingbirds, finches, sparrows and many others who were clearly drawn to the sound of running water. Warblers were rare in my yard before.
A problem arose with the fountain though: it was a huge operation to clean, requiring disassembling and moving everything out, scrubbing it all down. I can’t do that myself, being disabled, so I paid my garden helper to periodically. When she told me in June she couldn’t do yardwork regularly anymore I realized I needed to revamp this fountain. She’s able to come by occasionally, and we changed the configuration to a simple pan fitted into the top rim of the big pot, retaining the pump, hose, plate and bricks for birds to stand on. It’s been a vast improvement, and I can now drain, clean and refill it myself in 20 minutes with little effort. I considered simplifying it even further with a solar bubbler but it’s in the shade most of the day. Quite a range of birds visit this birdbath, from woodpeckers to warblers.
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We live mostly on the second floor of our house. I like to look out the windows and watch birds, so early this summer I put a flower-pot-pan on the deck railing with a solar bubbler. It’s in sunlight from early morning until about 3pm, so it bubbles all day long. It’s the newer generation with a battery backup that recharges in sunlight. This birdbath is very popular since it’s on the flight path between trees and the feeders. It’s mostly small birds who use this one, finches, sparrows, nuthatches etc.
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On the opposite side of the house I have two birdbaths on the railing of the landing. They are visible from our kitchen window, and get action all day long. I have tons of views (and pictures) of these birdbaths. The birds sort of notice us but if we don’t move too quickly they just go ahead and do their thing, a few feet away.
I’ve kept a small ceramic pedestal birdbath there for decades (bringing it inside in winter so it doesn’t crack in freezing weather). Once I discovered how much birds like bubblers I added one to this birdbath, but the only kind that fits is the first-generation type (no rechargeable batteries), with the shallow draft. The kitchen landing is in sun only a few hours of day so this bubbler isn’t bubbling most of the time.
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So cool how birds fluff out their feathers when bathing.
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To get more water movement on that railing, I created another birdbath next to the ceramic one using a mixing bowl, a plate, and the newer kind of bubbler (even so, it doesn’t run all day). Both these birdbaths get lots of traffic. Chickadees and grosbeaks are big fans, as are warblers. Bigger and smaller birds visit too.
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Some of these birds have departed on migration already, like the Rufous Hummers and Crossbills. Others will be leaving soon. Summer and birdbath season are winding down.
Birdbaths are a joy in my life and help out the birds. I figure given how human activity has made life difficult for birds, we should do whatever we can to mitigate it. This is a way to act locally!