It's fun to have birds in your garden. They liven up the garden and make it more interesting. As many birders know, one of the more reliable things that you can do to attract birds to your area is to provide a water source that they have easy access to. Water is very important to birds. They love water. They need water. Birds will use water not only for drinking but for bathing as well. And, one of the best ways to provide water for your bird friends is to place one or more birdbaths in your garden.
Birds need water for three primary purposes. First, just like any creature, they need to drink water for survival.
The 2nd reason that birds require water is for cleansing. In particular, they need it for cleaning their feathers. Flying with dirty feathers is much more difficult, than flying with clean feathers. Many people believe that a bird is preening when he splashes water over his back and smooths out his feathers. But, in reality, what he is doing is cleaning his wings. And, at the same time, straighetning them. This is because wings have a tendency to bend over time. And, in order to fly well, a bird needs straight wings. So, by the act of cleaning his wings, what he is actually doing is straightening and oiling them as well.
Third, birds need water to help their feathers retain their insulating and waterproofing properties. Clean feathers help the bird to fluff their feathers and help retain warm air next to their bodies.
Especially in a city setting where it's hard to find clean water, placing a bird bath in your garden may gain you the thanks of many birds.
Bird baths are sold in a variety of designs, layouts, construction materials, and so on. In addition, you will also find a plethora of features - lighted bird baths, ones with heat, ones with feeders attached as well. There is no need to go overboard with features but you should keep in mind a few things:
Whatever type of bird bath you get make sure that the bowl is out of the reach of common city predators like cats. Your garden will likely have shrubbery in it, perfect hiding places for cats to ambush unsuspecting prey. By placing the bird bath a safe distance away from shrubbery, maybe 20 feet or so, you'll make it more difficult for a cat to successfully attack any birds in your bird bath. But, also, don't place the bird bath too far from the shrubbery. A bird with wet wings can be a "sitting duck" so to speak and unable to fly very far. By keeping the shrubbery within around 20 feet, it doesn't have to fly too far away to safety.
For the same reason, the bowl of the bird bath should not be too close to the ground. The further off the ground it is, the harder for prey to get to it.
Another quality to look for in the bird bath is the shallowness of the bowl. Birds do not like deep water. You want a wide, shallow bowl that is at least 40 inches (and probably more) above the ground. Birds will be attracted to the shallowness of the water.
And don't forget that birds also need water during the winter. If you live in a cold enough climate where water freezes during the winter you'll appreciate having a bird bath with an electrical heating element to prevent the water in the bowl from freezing. Your bird friends will appreciate it too.
Author Resource:-
In the winter time, birds especially love luxuries such as a heated bird bath. For more info on bird related issues and evaluations of bird watching amenities such as garden bird feeders, please stop by our site.
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