Do you have a bird bath? Who comes to visit?

[BradN]

A magpie visits Workshop member annettespanski's bird bathAs the weather heats up so does our wildlife. Many of the birds, insects and other animals in your area will appreciate any water you can leave out for them so they can have a drink and maybe a splash.

Of course, it's very important to keep the water nice and clean for them.

Birds in Backyards has a helpful guide to providing water for birds, which includes selecting safe places to put bird baths and other water vessels to protect birds from attack by cats.

When I first bought a bird bath some years ago I was immediately surprised by how many insects began using it – especially stingless native bees.

Many other native insects also need water to drink, or to make mud for building their nests.

Insects need water tooThe most constant visitors to my bird bath here on the Gold Coast are noisy miners, which drink and bathe in it every day. Grey butcherbirds are a distant second, followed by the occasional currawong or kookaburra (though when the kookaburras come for a dip they mostly prefer the swimming pool).

An old dog gets a taste of some very noisy minersMy bird bath is also a great attraction for a large, black labrador cross. I can only assume it's because the water tastes a bit like chicken...

I've also placed a few jam-jar lids full of water around the garden so that lizards can have a little drink (I don't want to put out anything deep enough for them to drown in).

The photos in this post come from Backyard vegetable garden makeover by @annettespanski, Bargain bird bath by @LisasGarden, and my own backyard. Other Workshop members who have bird baths include @fgrieve, @Remarka6le, @PN and @homeinmelbourne – and it would be interesting to hear what has been visiting them too.

Do you have a bird bath yourself? What wildlife comes to visit? We'd love to see any photos you have of your feathered friends having a splash.

[Akanksha]

Interesting topic, thanks for sharing @BradN. Never occurred to me that a bird bath could attract so many different living things — especially those insects.

I see many birds regularly dipping in my pool for a quick splash or drink. Does that count as an oversized bird bath?

Akanksha

[BradN]

Hi @Akanksha. I think you can definitely count your pool as an oversized bird bath. I'm sure the birds really appreciate it!

Brad

[Remarka6le]

Cheers for the mention @BradN ,

We have a number of drinking spots in our garden, my under air con bird bath being the first and most used of these, the larger visitors seem to use this one the most, including a growing family of crows that nest in our front tree that are friendly to my family and dogs, it also gets magpies, parrots, owls, lorikeets and a few other exotics that I haven't been able to identify, we think it's partially due to the large concentration of snails around it. The air con running throughout the day (being my home office) keeps this thing filled daily. 

We have a large multi-tier bird bath next to our primary produce raised garden beds, being solar powered and tierd means it creates a lovely running water noise, which birds are attracted to both the sight and sound of, it also helps our native bees on hot days. We get a lot of wrens, honeyeaters, parrots, noisy miners, thornbills, warblers, quail-thrush and pardalote here, and our dogs have been known to drink from here from time to time. If not raining, we'll top this up with water every second day. 

On our back raised wall we have 3 spread out raised fountains with floating solar fountains in them, we fill these up every 2 days. We have very thick bushes up there for our smaller birds to shelter / hide in, so they can hop out, grab a drink and then quickly get back to the bush. We don't monitor these, but when gardening we usually see our family of wrens.

Finally we have our growing number of Frog Hotels that we set up for our green tree frogs, the solar light makes food catching easy for them at night and we ensure it's watered every two days so they're nice and comfortable in those pipes. 

[BradN]

Hi @Remarka6le. Wow. It sounds like you're really looking after the birds – and the frogs. 

Are you at all concerned that your air con bird bath, being on the ground and in a corner, might make the birds vulnerable to cats? Or do the birds have good sight lines from that area? Have you ever thought of raising it on something?

I don't think I've ever heard of a pardalote before. What gorgeous-looking little birds! Thanks for sharing!

Brad

[Remarka6le]

Hey @BradN , 

I've kept it on the ground to make it easier for ground dwelling animals to reach it. It does have limited sightlines, but the only bird I've seen that's ever gone solo down there are the owls, the others have one or two look outs that sit up on the fence of the air con unit itself. The last cat that tried to take a bird (an owl at night) ended up being pinned by our Rottweilers, they love our birds so they are very protective. 

We do plan on having more water spots in the yard, especially at the front, I'm just figuring out ways to automate our garden watering to coincide with re-filling the water spots along with an automated dog bowl re-filler. 

[BradN]

Remarka6le's Easy D.I.Y. frog hotelHi @Remarka6le. It sounds like it's all happening at your place! I don't think I've ever seen an owl drinking either.

I loved your Easy D.I.Y frog hotel, by the way. We don't seem to get many frogs at our place, and I'm not sure that I should encourage them. We don't have a pond or anything suitable for tadpoles, and I don't think there's anything suitable for them in the vicinity. It's only very rarely that we even hear a frog.

Brad

[Remarka6le]

@BradN , 

We chalk up the owls coming there for the snails, it's too shallow to bath in and I'm with the understanding that they majority of their water comes from their food and bathing. 

We got a drastic increase in green tree frogs after we set up the hotels, but saw an even bigger one after following the advice of RSPCA and the QLD Museum, basically plenty of garden lights, reducing chemicals and plenty of moist spaces for them to hide and rehydrate. I'd have a pond as well, but my dogs are idiots and would be using it daily 😅.

[TheHandySqirrel]

Hi @BradN,

we found our bird bath recently at Flemington Markets flea market here in Sydney (we like to spirit of reuse). I placed a small rock in the middle to allow any wildlife have a little rescue island, but as you can see from the photo the birds also use it as a stepping stone. I make sure to fish out all the flowers our Jacaranda tree currently bombards the bath with

[BradN]

Hi @TheHandySqirrel. I really like the stone in the middle of your bird bath. I might try that myself because the glazed finish of my bird bath is a bit slippery.

Those noisy miners sure do like a bird bath, don't they?

Brad