bird baths

Hi all, am calling on your collective knowledge here. I wanted a bird bath for my newly planted garden (one year and two weeks old!) and my partner surprised me with a beautiful bird bath. But I'm not sure it'll work as it is. Unfortunately I don't have a digital camera handy so can't take a picture. But the bowl is shaped like a flower and has a center to it that is a bit rough but small. And no real edge for perching. So my question is, will this just be a nice decoration to my yard? How can I make it more bird friendly? I saw somewhere on line a suggestion of using rocks (river rocks I guess?) in the bottom of it so it provides a less slippery surface since birds like people don't like slippery bath tubs. Any ideas for me? Thanks in advance.
Karen

Rocks and sturdy twigs for perching, maybe you could somehow secure it. Hard to say too much without knowing the setup.

It sounds lovely, but without a photo I'm not sure how helpful this advice will be. Birds don't necessarily care for deep birdbaths. So what you might do is only fill it with an inch or so of water, and as Pelletory suggested, put a sturdy twig inside the bath itself. If it's on a pedestal, you could remove that and make it a ground bath. Put it under or very near a bush, which the birds can use as a pedestal. But don't fill it with much water.

Carla

Is it anything like this one?
Birds will use anything with water (witness mud puddles) and you might find they like this better since it's kind of shallow... they don't like water too deep.
Like Pelletory said, give them a twig or some rock to stand on and most importantly, keep it clean.
Have fun.

I have three sizes of rocks in mine. The raccoons knocked off and broke the original bowl to the bath and I've replaced it with just a large plastic terra cotta saucer so they can't keep breaking them. Anyway, in the center is a larger (8x8") jagged rock, then a medium-sized smoother one to one side and a small (4x4") completely smooth oval one to the other. The only birds who actually perch on the edge of the bowl are the ravens (who muck up the water washing entrails of road kill, yuck!). Everyone else has their favorite rock to sit on while bathing.

Hi, thanks for your input so far. Judy, yes my birdbath does look similar to yours. Stellapathic, do you happen to have a picture of your birdbath? I think my bowl is kind of small for more than maybe two smallish rocks if they want any space for water to bathe! The twig idea sounds like a good one as well, tried taping one to the bowl, that didn't work so well, so now am considering other options, like a string or something. Also, discovered I need to secure the bowl as well as our neighbor's cat is more of a hunter and jumper than our cats are and I've had trouble keeping her out of our yard. Put the birdbath in a more open space (no place for the cats to hide), though within a short flying distance to our fence and trees if needed.

A little funky because it was taken through the window, and the acorn woodpecker proving not only the ravens perch on the edge.....and, yes, it is probably a whole lot bigger than yours.

Thats neat stella! I've never seen woodpeckers come down to the bird baths here.

Pelletory... I was astounded by it, too! I've never seen a woodpecker take a bath! Learn something new every day.

Really? These acorn woodpeckers have a "bathing hour" every day. A family will come down and splash around. Here's a wee baby just checking it out. This was taken before the raccoon did his damage and I had to replace the bowel with ugly plastic.




edited for typo

This message was edited Jul 25, 2007 12:28 PM

I have not seen a bird come to my bath in 18 days. It rained everyday for fourteen. I guess they are finding other places. I think they are finding plenty of natural food somewhere also. They are not coming for feed as often. I have been noticeing some stains on their beaks. I have mostly been seeing doves, sparrows, cardinals and one chickadee.