One of the upsides of the pandemic was that I was able to stay in one spot long enough to actually try out some of the bird advice I’d given over the years. One of the things I was really anxious to play with was water features. People tend to just think of food for birds, but water is really where it’s at. Many of the birding hot spots in the Rio Grande Valley Texas have water features that include drippers and mister and it brings all the birds to the yard. I got my lifer male blue bunting thanks to a water feature at Resaca de la Palma. While waiting for that bird, many other species came in for the water as well as the fruit, seeds, and suet dough.

*Black-and-white warbler enjoying some shallow water at a Rio Grande Valley Texas birding hotspot.*

From observing birds at water features and my eight years running a wild bird feeding store, I have learned that three things are key in a water feature for birds:

They want it shallow.
They want rocks.
They are attracted to sound of moving water.

*The shallow pan birdbath set up I created during the pandemic.*

I ended up moving in with someone at the start of the pandemic who had a good base layer of a yard for birds—lots of great plants and trees for birds as well as a pile of logs leftover from a tree that came down a few years earlier. They had been using a plastic dish to go under a planter for water. I took it, placed on the edge of some choke berry trees, surrounded it it and filled it with rocks and placed a few old logs around it.

We ran a garden hose out to it and in the late afternoon or any time were planning to sit outside, we’d turn on the hose to flush out the bath, let it overflow and water the plants that were around it. I planted some cardinal climber and maidenhair fern. As soon as the water ran for a few minutes, birds came in.

The yard was in the perfect spot to sit on the patio and watch the golden hour fading sunset hit the trees, feeders, and birdbath. During the pandemic, it was a popular hangout with my birding friends.

There are some great plans for making a birdbath setup. One of the best is Warblerfall designed by Julie Zickefoose. We had some great birds with our setup, although it now dawns on me that I mostly took picture of the brown ones.

The Best Bird Bath Features