“Everybody needs to drink,” and that includes birds in winter, spring, summer and fall. So says Dan Ziomek, who knows a thing or two about winged creatures.
That is why birdbaths that humans put out are much appreciated by the cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches, blue jays, goldfinches, tufted titmice, robins, indigo buntings and the rest of the rich variety of birds local to the Pioneer Valley or passing through on the Atlantic flyway of which the Connecticut River is a prominent local feature.
Ziomek can be heard chirping and talking about birds on his radio segment, “Bird Songs,” on 93.9 the River. He has also been the resident bird expert at the Hadley Garden Center since 1988.
With the coming of sping, most people put their bird feeders away so the bears aren’t attracted by them. Birdbaths are a way to attract birds year-round.
There are several things to keep in mind about birdbaths.
If you are going to put one out be prepared to keep it reasonably clean. It doesn’t take a lot of work, just a scrub brush and plain water. But if you see a green or reddish mold growing, that’s not good. “We don’t want to be poisoning the birds,” Ziomek said.
In that case a mild bleach solution (1 to 5) or better yet white vinegar will restore it to an acceptable hygienic standard.
A nice accessory to a birdbath is something to make the water move. It can be a fountain, a small waterfall, or simply a device you place in the middle that has a little propeller protected by a mushroom-shaped dome.
“Moving water is somehow more enticing to birds,” Ziomek said. If it gurgles, splatters or splashes, even more so. “The sound of moving water draws birds like a magnet.”
Pat Maginnis, owner of Backyard Birds, a store for everything avian on Strong Avenue in Northampton, explains that if water is moving it tells the birds that it is clean. It also has the advantage of keeping mosquitoes from laying and hatching eggs.
Among the many items she carries is that little device to create motion. The brand she sells is called the Water Wiggler. “You set it just above the water level and the little circular motion makes a ring of waves,” she said. They come in several models, some solar-powered, some battery-operated. They even have models that broadcast a canned soundtrack of water gently babbling down a brook.
Whether that would pass a truth-in-advertising challenge in the bird world is questionable, but it does do them the favor of alerting them to available water.
“Water is the most important thing you can do. It is more important than any seed you can offer,” said Maginnis. “They can always find insect larvae up underneath the bark of a tree, they can find berries, they can find seeds from plants.”
She notes that birds are one of the oldest species alive.
“They know how to do all the food-procuring. It’s the water that can really become an issue, especially when we’re in drought when everything is dry,” said Maginnis. “The puddles are dried up, the dew isn’t as dewy in the morning.” For a whole host of reasons, birds “are more reliant on humans to supply them with clean fresh water in dry, or in some cases solidly frozen, times.
Even rivers and lakes are not very helpful to many songbirds.
“Remember, they aren’t ducks, they can’t swim, they can’t just land on a pond and take a bath,” Maginnis said. “They have to be able to stand up in a body of water shallow enough for them to get their foot in.”
Some birds don’t use water to bathe. They roll in sand or gravel to clean themselves. “They don’t need to get wet, but every bird needs to drink,” she said.
Maginnis doesn’t see the need to drain your birdbath if you go away for a while. “It’s a personal decision,” she said. “If you are not around you are not going to be affected by the batch of mosquitoes that might hatch in there and you might be helping the birds.”
Another important thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want your birdbath to become a feeding ground for predators, particularly housecats. The more you are able to put your birdbath in an open area, the less vulnerable you will make the birds that land there.
If you want it near a bush, make it a rosebush, advised Maginnis. “It has thorns, so a cat can’t hide in a rosebush.”
Birds are inherently more vulnerable when they are in a birdbath, especially if they are wet and can’t escape as quickly. “It takes them an extra second if they are splashing around to recover and fly away.
“So a cat lurking in a nearby bush would have an extra advantage.”
Ziomek advises planting berries and other fruiting plants in conjunction with a birdbath as a way of attracting a wide variety of birds to your yard.
“Crabapple are excellent,” he said. So are serviceberries, sometimes called June berries because of when they ripen. “Lots of birds flock to them because there isn’t much other fruit around at that time of year.”
Winterberry and holly are good, as are all types of viburnums. Black-eyed Susans, daisies, echinacea, fuchsias and petunias are also welcome additions to the mix. The more variety in terms of plant life you put into your surroundings the more varieties of birds you’ll attract.
Adding a birdbath will keep them around.
“Even in the harshest of weather birds depend on us for only 30 percent of their diet,” according to Ziomek.
“There’s lots of natural food sources out there for birds,” he said. “Water should be provided year-round, especially in the winter, because when all their water sources have been frozen up, our providing water can often be a lifesaver for the birds.”
There are some solar-powered birdbath heaters that will collect enough energy to keep the water at 32 or 33 degrees most of the time, but Ziomek doesn’t think they work very well when it gets really cold.
There are plug-in heaters and “some people who are very dedicated will go out and pour warm water into a birdbath every single day, maybe more than one time a day,” he said.
The other time when it is most important to provide water is in the heat of the summer.
Some birds do use them for bathing. “It lets them dislodge parasites and it opens up the oil glands in their feathers to keep them “pristine to allow them to fly,” said Ziomek.
That is another reason it is important to clean a heavily trafficked birdbath regularly.
“Bird poop and loose feathers with parasites all contribute to the water getting pretty filthy,” said Ziomek. And, because birds are congregating, there is more chance for disease to spread.
Birdbaths are often on a pedestal. It makes them easier for us to watch. Being up high “might give them a second or two more to get away from a cat” but it exposes them to hawks, he said.
Whether to put the birdbath up high or at ground level is “entirely a personal decision,” Ziomek said. Either way it has to be shallow. If it has more than three inches of water in it Ziomek recommends putting a rock in the middle to give the birds a place to perch while drinking.
Eric Goldscheider can be reached at eric.goldscheider@gmail.com