How to Make a Bird Bath
Making a bird bath for your garden can be a great way to ensure that you're creating a wonderfully safe and useful environment for birds, even while you're on a budget. Throughout this article, we've arranged some great DIY bird bath ideas that we've tracked down online or thought up ourselves.
Don't forget if you don't fancy the leg work of making your own, we have a full range of bird baths on our site!
DIY bird bath
A DIY bird bath is a great idea to get up to while you're looking for a little something to do. It's a simple project that is typically very low stakes and can look like anything you might prefer.
A great example of this changeability in the world of bird baths is the concept of using an old washing-up bowl to make a bird bath with your kids or grandkids.
While a washing-up bowl would be too deep on its own, you could seek out some old rocks and bricks to place at the base of the bowl, and then top it up with water to a level that's a little easier for a small bird to manage.
This could be a small gathering game that you play with young kids and one that they'd likely enjoy. After all, kids often end up gathering rocks all by themselves anyway, so why not make that process a little more constructive?
To boost the customisation of a washing-up bowl with young kids, we might suggest the use of some simple paint from a craft store on the outside of the bowl.
You could paint simple things, from flowers to bees, or more complex scenes, such as a little house with the whole family standing next to it.
Bird baths
Bird baths are something quite essential for birds in your neighborhood, and other neighborhoods around the world. This is why learning how to make a bird bath can be really important - you'll be easily helping local birds.
Birds regularly preen themselves. This process involves getting oil from their preening glands and spreading it across their feathers.
This helps them to keep water away from themselves, allowing rain and similar things to simply drip off them in inclement weather.
To be sure that birds can preen themselves well, they need to have no additional dirt or grim on their outermost layer. Therefore, bird baths are essential to remove any bits of leaf or similar items from their surface feathers.
DIY bird baths
DIY bird baths can be a great way to provide for the birds in your neighbourhood without breaking the bank.
In this article, we're going to run through some great DIY bird bath ideas that can help you to do a little good while keeping money in your pocket.
There are some styles and materials that are going to be harder to make than others. For example stone bird baths would be very difficult to create at home. However you could add stones to your DIY bath to add some authenticity!
An old sink bird bath
Using an old sink to make a DIY bird bath is a great way to ensure that you're making great use of some old trash. If there's anything in your home that you only need a fixed number of, it's probably sinks - one in the kitchen, and one in each bathroom is probably the maximum number you need.
Using an old sink as a bird bath, therefore, can be a great idea: it has a built-in way to easily drain it if needs be, as well as a system to prevent the bath from overflowing onto the surrounding pieces of the garden.
The only downside of using an old sink is that some sinks may be too deep. Ideally, you need a shallow sink - something a little more like a saucer or a plate than a deep Belfast sink.
If you have a very deep sink, it's a great idea to place bricks or rocks in the bottom before putting it outside as a bird bath - this provides a solid ground for a bird to stand on, such that it won't be in the water and have it's head submerged.
A mosaic bird bath
A mosaic bird bath can be a great DIY project that you can do while also using up old or excess tiles. Generally, furnishing tiles are sold in packs of a certain size, while bathrooms are not made with that in mind.
Often, you'll end up with a few tiles, or half tiles, that aren't needed for your bathroom or kitchen.
Smash those up a little with a hammer, and use some cement to set them into or onto an old sink, a plant pot, or a similar object.
This will help you to create a visually striking item for your back garden. What's not to love about this DIY bird bath idea?
Lamp bird bath
Creating a bird bath from a lamp isn't quite as absurd as it might sound. Naturally, the first step is to remove any and all electronics from the lamp itself. Then, use the lamp base to create the actual bath portion of the bird bath.
This is easiest with large, hollow lamps.
In those situations, you can generally smash the top of a bird bath, and then sand down any sharp edges so that birds won't injure themselves. Then, with the half bowl that you've created, you can allow birds to bathe in your garden!
Why should you have a bird bath in your garden?
Having a bird bath in your garden is a great idea for ensuring the general health of your local birds is as good as possible.
It's quite common for birds to get some form of inability to fly or walk properly from a level of poor hygiene - if they cannot preen themselves well, they can be in a level of danger.
An easy bird bath in your garden can be a great way to prevent this!
Allowing them access to water in this sense can also allow them to remove any dirt or leaves from their feathers. This will allow them to properly preen themselves, leading to healthier, happier birds.
DIY hanging bird bath
A DIY bird bath is often fated to simply be a bath that sits on the ground. However, you can make a hanging bird bath quite easily!
There are a number of different plans and ideas online for a hanging bird bath, but the best ideas are often very simple.
We would recommend affixing small hooks to the outer rim of a plant pot tray and then using those rings to attach the bird bath to a hanging basket hook, or something similar.
Handprint bird bath
A handprint birdbath is a great way to create a small time capsule of your life at the moment you created the bird bath. Typically, this type of homemade bird bath is created through the use of a small portion of cement.
The cement is poured into a mould, and then your hand, or the hand of a loved one, is pressed deeply enough into the bird bath that a small pool would form in the palm of the handprint.
If you're having multiple people do this, then have them do it all at once - that way, the handprints won't crush each other in the bird bath itself.
Serving bowl bird bath
A bird bath made from a serving bowl can be a really easy and simple way to use up an old piece of kit that you don't use anymore.
Simply placing the serving bowl out in the garden is enough to create a simple bird bath, but you could also make it look a little prettier if you wanted - exterior paint is typically quite cheap, and would allow you to create a sweet pattern or design for your garden.
Flower pot bird bath
A flower pot bird bath might sound a little odd, but it's a truly lovely way to use up an old pot. Simply fill in the hole in the base of a flower pot with silicone, or some other, similarly waterproof item.
This will allow you to create a seal, which you can use to fill the bird bath with water, leading to an ideal bath for a number of birds.
Chair bird bath
Making a bird bath from a chair might sound odd, but it's much simpler than you might think. Simply use an old chair as a base for a small bird bath, creating a focal point in your garden.
A great way to do this is to place a terra cotta pot tray on your chair and fill it with water.
When filled, it will be too heavy for all but the largest birds to move and will be deep enough for birds to use it as a source of water.
What can I use to make a homemade bird bath?
You can use virtually anything to make a homemade bird bath! For instance, you could use gardening equipment to make a tomato cage bird bath - line the cage with pond lining or something similar, and you'll end up with a simple, easy DIY bird bath.
How to make an inexpensive bird bath?
The most inexpensive bird baths are commonly made from concrete - they can be quite large and hardwearing, even on a budget.
A concrete bird bath can be really easy to make, too - simply pour concrete into a mould or bowl lined with vaseline, and tip the bowl to get an even coating.
When the structure of the bowl is roughly complete, you can pull it out and use it in your garden.
Can I use anything as a bird bath?
Pretty much, yes! Anything can be a bird bath since there are so many birds that are quite small and versatile.
The only time you might run into something of a problem is if you try to construct a bird bath with certain properties, for instance, a heated bird bath.
That would be very hard to construct from concrete due to its insulating properties.
However, you could construct a simple heated bath from metal, using the natural warming properties of the sun to easily conduct heat.
What do you fill a bird bath with?
You can easily fill a bird bath with water from the tap, and birds will be happy with it. The only exception to this in your garden is typically a pond, which should ideally be filled with rainwater.
We hope that this short article has given you a few ideas on the best ways to create and use baths in your garden!
