BIRDBATHS: Find out the best way to keep your feathered 
friends wet and wild ... ahead ... on Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Attracting birds to your backyard is as simple as adding 
water ... to a birdbath.

05 -- They'll use that birdbath year-round. They'll use it for 
drinking. They'll use it for bathing ... 

Cliff Shackelford is a non-game ornithologist with Texas 
Parks and Wildlife. Decorative ceramic birdbaths often 
make better art than they do watering stations for birds.

09 -- The simpler the better. What I found, is the basin needs to be 
a little rough and not smooth. It needs to have a gradual dip to it.

Concrete pedestal birdbaths can be too deep for birds, 
and the porous material encourages algae and sediment 
buildup. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says a good 
birdbath mimics shallow puddles, which are nature's 
birdbaths. They suggest digging a shallow hole in the 
ground, lining it with plastic to make it watertight, and 
then putting sand in the bottom so birds can get their 
footing. Place a few plants around the perimeter, and you 
have a bird spa. 

The only thing that could make it better is dripping water, 
says Cliff Shackelford. 

12 -- Bird drips are really good; you can hang a milk jug up with a 
little pin prick hole in it. Just the sound of the water dripping 
could be attractive to birds. And also, they may like to get under 
that drip a little bit.

Find more birding information ont eh texas parks and 
Wildlife website. 

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I'm Cecilia Nasti.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/notes/BirdNote09_ProvideWater.pdf 




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