DIY upcycled bird baths

Without spending a dime.

I bought this handsome, sturdy bird bath from a local hardware store in 2022, and with the addition of a large rock to give them a place to safely perch, it’s been a hit with the local airborne community ever since.

However, when I went back last summer to purchase another one, the price had jumped a whopping 30 percent due to inflation. Wah-wah….

Fortunately, I didn’t have to lay out a bunch of extra cash just to get my wildlife fix. Bird baths can be expensive, and they’re often made too deep anyway to be comfortable for most birds, hence the need to add a sizable rock to the one in the video. But you don’t need to buy something new. All you need are some DIY super powers:

You can make a perfectly good bird bath with castoff items you might have lying around in your basement or garage.

Here’s how.

I made my first bird bath using a plant stand and the lid to a frying pan we no longer used.

I got the idea to repurpose the frying pans from a recommendation from the St. Louis Audubon Society to use trash-can lids, suggested because they are the right shallow depth for a bird bath.

But I didn’t like the idea of trash-can lids in my garden; they’re usually plastic and unsightly, and I didn’t have any on hand and didn’t want to buy them just for this purpose. But thinking about lids put me onto the frying pans I had in a giveaway box in the basement.

My observances back up Audubon’s recommendation. Birds much prefer shallow water, and pot lids are perfect! I also fit one into a breeze block, with a larger rock set next to it for additional perch surface.

The rocks give butterflies and moths some purchase. They have the added benefit of acting as a heat sink so the water takes longer to freeze when the weather turns cold (more on this in a minute).

For deeper pan bottoms, here’s a solution so that birds of all sizes can access the water: Place a large paver into the pot for a sturdy perch.

Contrary to misperception, you do not need to fork out a lot of dough for an electrical bubbling-water system. While I’m sure as some folks argue, birds are attracted to the sound of trickling water, all manner of birds regularly use our DIY water “features” like we’re an oasis in the middle of the desert. There’s just no need to lay out a lot of cash for some fancy system that isn’t sustainable anyway in terms of electricity and water use.

If you really must have water movement in your feature, you can get an inexpensive solar fountain, like this one.

The problem I had with it is that the suction cups aren’t very good at keeping it stationary, so it floats to the top, making it an unsuitable perch for small birds. You can see I tried to weight it down with rocks, but that didn’t last. This bath was only used by the occasional large bird—robins or crows.

Now, about winter watering

Most people think of feeding and watering birds when they probably need it least, during the height of the growing season, when there’s more for birds to eat and drink otherwise. However, our feeders and bird baths are active all winter.