A beautiful backyard doesn’t just consist of well-designed landscape, an entertainment center, and a patio with a pool. Your beautiful oasis can also include outdoor décor that brings beneficial wildlife into your tranquil space, such as a birdbath!
There are many different species of birds that bring benefits to your backyard. Birds consume thousands of insects, especially in spring when feeding their young. Seed-eating birds contribute to a healthy garden by charging weeds in the most critical stage of life: the seed period.
Ways to Attract Birds
There are several ways to attract birds to your backyard:
- Create a Bird Feeding Station – Putting up multiple feeders will attract more birds to your yard.
- Bright Colors – Birds are naturally attracted to bright colors, so you can pique their curiosity by offering a variety of colors around your yard. Different colors attract different species; choose the right colors to attract the types of birds you would like to see in your backyard.
- Bird Houses – Just like all animal species, birds feel safe when there is reliable shelter for them. Not all birds like birdhouses and different species have different needs.
- Creating Bird Friendly Landscape – Birds need food, water, and shelter to fulfill their basic needs, and will not visit a yard that lacks plants, trees, bushes, and flowers. Native plants attract birds and require less maintenance.
- Birdbath – A great water source will entice birds to your yard. Birds need a dependable supply of fresh, clean water for drinking and bathing.
Selecting the Best Birdbath
Birds come to a birdbath year-round, including during wintertime. Birds have a chamber called a cloaca, where digestive wastes, uric acid, and eggs go before leaving their body. While the uric acid is in the cloaca, birds can absorb some of the water back, thus conserving water – so you don’t have to worry about water freezing during the winter months; the birds will still come to visit!
You can incorporate some of the ways to attract birds into your birdbath. Bright colors and native plants and flowers surrounding your birdbath will surely entice them to visit. It is important to remember that the best way to attract nature is by mimicking nature. This goes for your birdbath as well. Birds generally gravitate towards puddles or shallow pools of water in which they can drink and wade in, so make sure your perfect birdbath is shallow at the rim.
Pro Tip: Many birdbaths are too deep in the center of the basin, so you can place rocks of various sizes in the bowl for them to perch on.