Tips for Placing a Birdbath
Once you have found the perfect birdbath for your outdoor area, you begin asking yourself, where should I place it? We have a few ideas to give you the best view of your feathered friends, the best places, and how to attract more birds to your bird bath. Placing a birdbath where you can see it from indoors is a wonderful idea. You spend time making sure the water is clean and placing it, so you want to make sure that you are able to view it while you are sitting at your home desk, dining room, or maybe even kitchen sink. Seeing a few birds delighting in a fresh drink of water or bath is the sole purpose of a bird bath!
Birdbaths are often placed on pedestals in the middle of lawns. This is a good place because a bird can see that it is not in danger of any predators coming to visit, but placing a birdbath near overhanging limbs of a large tree is also a great idea. This allows birds to fly over quickly, minimizing the thought of predator threats. Birds should be able to see around the birdbath or over the edge as they bathe to ensure they are safe. When placing plants around a birdbath, you should only consider very low, open foliage plants. This lessens the risk of a hiding place for any nearby predators, such as cats. Another great placement for birdbaths is native and ornamental plants that supply berries, acorns, nuts, seeds, or nectar. This will draw more birds to your birdbath in no time at all. If there is nearby bird besting material, it also encourages bird health and a new generation of visitors for your birdbath!
Placing a birdfeeder too close to your birdbath is not a good idea. Birds may open the shells of seeds, causing them to land in the water and creating an unwanted mess. A good idea is to keep the bird feeders far enough away from the birdbath so that birds can view them. They can then get their food and fly to nearby bushes to open their seeds, keeping the debris away. Once they are finished eating, they can stop by the nearby birdbath to get a drink of water or a quick bath. This will also keep away unwanted visitors such as squirrels.
Don't get discouraged if you aren't getting a lot of visitors to your birdbath immediately. It takes a little time for birds to get used to a new birdbath. If you are still not seeing any visitors after a bit of time, review the area you have placed the birdbath in and see if there is some danger you had not thought about that is making the birds stay away. Try putting it in a shade more, as direct sunlight will cause the birdbath's water to get warm. But as time passes, birds, like people, are followers; once a few birds are seen visiting a birdbath, more birds will be attracted, and a new visible population will delight in the fresh water.