How to make a bird bath

Provide vital fresh water for your garden birds.

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Jo Price

Published: June 6, 2014 at 6:10 am

Illustrations by Alan Batley

Fresh water is essential for birds, for drinking and for washing their feathers.

A juvenile blackbird standing on the edge of a bird bath, off Chessington in Kent, England, UK. © Paul Williams/Getty Images

A bird bath is a simple way to provide fresh water, and this step-by-step guide will help you make your own:

First, glue around the bottom of an upturned terracotta pot with glue for outdoor use.

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Place a sealed/glazed saucer on top, and allow the glue to set. The saucer surface should be rough or textured to provide grip.

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Make a small pile of pebbles on one side of the saucer. This will provide both an escape route for birds and a basking spot for insects.

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Fill the saucer with water, ensuring the pebbles are not fully submerged. Keep it clean and topped up with fresh water.

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Jo Price

Deputy editor, BBC Wildlife Magazine

Jo Price is the deputy editor of BBC Wildlife Magazine. She trained as a journalist at Cardiff University and has been a member of the BBC Wildlife team for nine years, working in various roles. Jo commissions exciting natural history content and interviews experts for the magazine’s Wild Times section and discoverwildlife.com. She enjoys wildlife gardening to support an array of species, including a few hedgehogs: creating a hedgehog highway has resulted in the prickly mammals visiting her suburban garden to forage and hibernate. Jo spends her weekends exploring local nature reserves, Magor Marsh and RSPB Newport Wetlands, and going on countryside walks and bike rides with her family.

Illustrations by Alan Batley

How to make a bird bath

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