Birds need water especially in winter
Wild birds need access to clean water all year round, but when winter temperatures dip into the freezing range, this may be harder to find. Birds can get water from eating snow, but this requires large amounts of energy which they need to keep themselves warm.
So what’s a caring Ecosystem Gardener to do?
Well, one way is to train your birds by placing a shallow pan of warm outside at the same time each day. Your resident Chickadees and other birds will learn to come to the water at the same time. You then bring the pan back inside when it freezes. Some very dedicated folks do this several times a day.
A step up from that is a solar-heated water dish, a plastic dish with a black lid and a small hole for water sipping. The black absorbs the heat of the sun and keeps the water from freezing, but only works until the temperature drops below 20 degrees.
I use a heated dog bowl, which I’ve filled with a layer of stones to keep the water shallow enough for the birds. It only turns on when the temperature is near freezing, and automatically shuts off when either all the water evaporates or the temperature rises.
There is a wide assortment of heated bird baths
But in reading Laura Erickson’s new book, the Birdwatching Answer Book, I discovered that there is some concern that birds who bathe in this heated water may suffer from frozen feathers or loss of tail feathers when temperatures drop below 20 degrees. She recommends weaving a layer of sticks over the bath to allow birds to drink, but not to bathe.
How do you provide water for birds in winter? I’d love to hear your ingenious ideas.
© 2009 – 2010, Carole Brown. All rights reserved.
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No ingenious ideas here. I am looking at getting one of the solar sipper water dishes – the ones that only work down to 20F. So far I’ve been putting warm water out, but the birds haven’t really become dependent on my water provision yet so I’ve not been entirely disciplined about it.
Alison Kerr´s last post ..Fun With Sticks – Build a Shelter
Keep water sources near dense bushes where birds can dry off safely and preen out of the reach of stalking and flying predators. Birds are poor flyers when their feathers are wet. And ice build-up around heated baths is usually a visual cue to birds that it’s too cold out to bathe, but placing rocks in the bath is another way to prevent birds from bathing, but allows them to get a drink.
I went over and read the reviews for the solar sipper and now I’m not sure it’s the solution I want. The heated dog water bowl with rocks in might be better. It’s kind of hard to put the water source next to a bush when it needs an electricity supply nearby to power it, but a good thought to work with. Maybe some shrubs on one side of the deck should be in the landscaping plan.
Alison Kerr´s last post ..Fun With Sticks – Build a Shelter
Well, heated bird baths and bird bath heaters have very short cords and are meant to be used with a customer-supplied, outdoor rated extension cord. So, you could have the ext. cord as long as you needed it to be. The reason for the short cord on the bath is so the connection between it and your extension will be above the snow-line, and won’t short-out from exposure to water. Heated dog bowls would be fine too, (I use one for my chickens) as long as there aren’t cats around. Cats love to ambush ground-feeding and ground-level bathing birds. We sell the solar sipper and it’s fine if you have a very sunny place to put it during the day and take it in at night. It doesn’t work well in shady yards or if it’s left out to freeze up at night.
We have a pond with a recirculating pump feeding a little waterfall. There’s always some liquid water at that end of the pond…not sure if this would work in much colder climes, but here in DC it does the trick.
Elizabeth @the Natural Capital´s last post ..Natural Places in the DC Area To Take Your Out-of-Town Visitors
Duncraft: thanks for sharing such valuable knowledge! I actually did not know that’s why the heater cords were so short. I set the heated dog dish right on top of the birdbath which I run a cord out to.
Elizabeth: you are lucky to live where a recirculating pump works through the winter!
Alison: Now is definitely the time to plan your Ecosystem Garden. I love this time of year as I sit with the catalogs and my garden map spread out in front of me trying to fit more plants in. Have fun!