If your feathered friends aren't using your birdbath, try adding a homemade dripper. The patter of its falling water is very attractive to birds. Although a plastic jug is one of the easiest containers to use for this project, you also can use a bucket or any other waterproof receptacle in which it is possible to punch a pinhole-sized opening. That constant "drip-drip" may be torture to humans, but birds will flock to it.
Place your birdbath beneath a tree but at least 10 feet from the nearest shrubs. That spacing allows birds more time to see and escape from cats that stalk them from shrubs; birds don't fly well when they are wet.
Hang a long S-hook from a branch of the tree just above the birdbath, or position a shepherd's crook, also called a shepherd's hook, in the ground beside the birdbath so that its crook, or hook, is above the birdbath.
Fill a 1-gallon plastic jug with water, and put the jug's screw-on cap on the jug securely. Hang the jug by hook or crook from its handle. Poke a hole in the lowest corner of the jug, using a tack, large needle or large pin for the task.
Count how many drops of water fall per minute from the jug into the birdbath. If the number is fewer than 10, then enlarge the hole a bit. Lower the jug if it hangs more than 2 feet above the birdbath. Otherwise, a strong breeze may cause the water drops to miss the birdbath.
Poke another hole in the jug's top. That hole helps to prevent the jug's plastic sides from collapsing inward as water drains from the container.
Fill the jug with water once each day. Check the jug's bottom hole occasionally to ensure it hasn't clogged.
Things You Will Need
- Measuring tape
- Rope (optional)
- Scissors (optional)
- Long S-hook or shepherd's crook, or shepherd's hook, plant hanger
- 1-gallon plastic jug with screw-on cap
- Tack, large needle or large pin
- Watch or timer
- A shepherd's crook, or shepherd's hook, is a tall, metal stake with a top that curves like a shepherd's staff. A hook at the bottom of the curve can be used to hang planters, bird feeders and other items.
- Keep an eye on the birdbath's water level. If it tends to be deeper than 2 inches at the water basin's center when the dripper is in action, then add some flat stones to the basin to provide more shallow areas.
- Ensure the birdbath dripper container is well-secured so it doesn't fall on the birds you are trying to help.
- Attracting Birds, Butterflies and Other Winged Wonders to Your Back Yard; Kris Wetherbee
- Projects for the Birder's Garden; Fern Marshall Bradley
- Natural Gardening for Birds: The Bird-Friendly Back Yard; Julie Zickefoose
- Songbirds in Your Garden; John K. Terres
- Yankee Magazine's Panty Hose, Hot Peppers, Tea Bags and More; Yankee Books
- The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds: Other Ways to Attract Birds
- Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images