Recommend a birdbath?

April 28, 2008 7:38 PM

Recommend an awesome birdbath.

I recently moved to a place that has a lot of birds. Hummingbirds, doves, grackles and other blackbirds, sparrows of many sorts, blue jays, corvids, swifts and the occasional raptor all make their appearance. I put up a feeder and have enjoyed watching all these birds stop in for a snack, photographing them, Googling them and trying to identify them in my handy guide.

I'm ready to take it to the next level. I'd like to install a birdbath. I have both outdoor electric and hose capabilities. I'd like something that is/can:

• Move water around, ideally a spray or fountain or something else birds and I might enjoy
• Attractive to a variety of birds, this is really the whole point
• Easy to turn on and off; unplugging it is easy enough, but no pump that has to be re-primed each time it's plugged in or something like that
• Lightweight; I can't move a 100 lb stone birdbath by myself
• Be decorative in itself; a urinating cherub in pink plastic faux-marble or something would be ideal
• Remote control I could use to mess with the birds' heads from a distance would be TOTALLY SWEET
• Be buyable and deliverable over the web with a minimum of fuss in California
• For the purpose of this question, price is no object, although I'm unlikely actually to spend more than a few hundred bucks unless there is something really awesome

I'm most interested in recommendations that you have direct experience with.

posted by ikkyu2 to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

ikkyu - I'm partial to Smith and Hawken, but would also add that, if you have hummingbirds, agastache is like crack cocaine to them. It grows in hot, arid sunny locales really easily and looks great.
posted by docpops at 8:12 PM on April 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: There actually is one of those red-orange agastache plants here, docpops, it's the only thing the hummingbirds bother visiting. The bath is more for the sparrows, jays, grackles and crows, I am hoping; I'm not aware that hummingbirds bathe themselves much?
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:15 PM on April 28, 2008

Check out the garden section at Farm Supply the last time I was there they had an assortment of ponds and fountains.
posted by hortense at 9:27 PM on April 28, 2008

Plow and Hearth and Gardener's Supply have some nice ones. Maybe get a solar-powered one so you don't need to plug/unplug it at all?
posted by Asparagirl at 9:43 AM on April 29, 2008

Best answer: Wild Birds Unlimited has some nice ones in their catalog.
posted by hortense at 10:32 AM on April 29, 2008

I really wonder about a birdbath that is also a moving water feature. I imagine the pump would get clogged up with the junk the birds leave in the water.

Think about getting a really big birdbath, not the little round ones that are so common. I used two plant trays, each about one by two feet, on a tall bench, and just the right depth, one to two inches. It's wild to see 10 birds bathing in there and the dynamics between them.

Please don't mess with the birds heads. They are trying to survive and have enough real challenges in the world.
posted by Listener at 10:48 AM on April 29, 2008

Check out this Solar Copper Cascade waterfall one. No electricity required!

I also like the looks of this one with frogs and angels on it.
posted by mattbucher at 11:48 AM on April 29, 2008