Hanging Metal Fat Ball Feeders (Set of Four)
Shepherd Hook Feeder Pole
Bird Baths
Water matters as much as food, and far fewer gardens offer it. Pedestal baths, ground dishes and solar fountains that keep the surface moving through the summer.
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Do bird baths really attract more birds than feeders?
They attract different birds. Every garden bird needs water daily for drinking and for keeping its feathers airworthy, including species that never touch a feeder. British Bird Feeders stocks pedestal baths, ground dishes and solar fountains, and in a dry August or a hard frost water outperforms any feeder you can hang.
- Shallow beats deep: birds want to stand in water, not swim in it.
- Two to five centimetres of water with a rough surface for grip is ideal.
- Moving water is seen and heard from much further away and does not stagnate.
- Site a bath in the open so cats cannot approach unseen, with cover a short flight away.
- Change the water every couple of days and scrub the bowl weekly.
Common questions
Questions about bird baths
Two to five centimetres at the deepest point, sloping shallower at the edges. Birds bathe standing up, so anything deeper is unusable and unsafe for smaller species. If a bath is too deep, add a flat stone or a layer of gravel to create a shallow shelf they can stand on.
In the open, with a clear view all round so nothing can creep up on a bathing bird, and with a shrub or low branch two or three metres away to dry off and preen in safety. Avoid placing it directly under a feeder, where droppings and spilled husks will foul the water.
Change the water every two or three days and scrub the bowl weekly with a stiff brush and hot water — no detergent or algaecide, both of which are harmful to birds. Keeping the bath out of full afternoon sun slows algae considerably, and a solar fountain that keeps the surface moving helps more still.