Easy assistance for backyard birds.

I don’t know about your area, but in the part of Pennsylvania where our friend Ben and Silence Dogood live, it’s been a bitterly cold, snowy winter. And when the ground and natural sources of water like streams and ponds freeze over, backyard birds suffer. Many of us enjoy providing seed and other foods for our outdoor friends over the cold months, but not many people think to provide a source of fresh, unfrozen water. Yet access to water is far more critical to birds’ survival than access to food, just as it is for us and all creatures.

If you’re an avid backyard birdwatcher* who loves feeding the birds, and you’re starting to feel guilty about now because it hasn’t occurred to you to set out fresh water, no worries. Even the most dedicated backyard bird enthusiasts, the ones who participate in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s and Bird Studies Canada’s Project FeederWatch, which tracks winter bird populations at feeders, are slackers where providing water is concerned. According to the wonderful book Birds at Your Feeder by Erica H. Dunn and Diane L. Tessaglia-Hymes, which cites Project FeederWatch data on a species-by-species basis (invaluable if you want to know which birds are likely to turn up in your own backyard and what they prefer to eat), “water was rarely offered where freezing occurs” by the 10,000-plus Project FeederWatch participants, who, by contrast, typically provide food for wild birds year-round.

How can you provide a reliable source of water for thirsty birds when the temperature’s guaranteed to turn a dish, bowl, or birdbath of water to ice? Well, as with many things in life, there’s a high-tech and a low-tech answer.

The high-tech answer (not all that high-tech, fortunately) is to buy an immersible water heater, modified from the ones originally developed for farmers’ stock tanks, to keep the water from freezing. At the low end, you can buy a heating unit; at the high end, you can buy a birdbath with the heating unit built in beneath the bath itself, so you don’t even see it. (In either case, you’ll need a convenient outdoor outlet for the cord.)

Wild bird specialty stores like Wild Birds Unlimited (www.wbu.com) and websites like Duncraft (www.duncraft.com) offer both options. But none of this comes cheap. Duncraft offers an impressive array of  pedestal and ground-level heated birdbaths, as well as some wonderfully convenient styles that attach to your deck railing to bring thirsty birds closer for your viewing pleasure. Prices for these range from $59.95 to $159.95. Ouch! Even if you want to buy a heating unit to drop into your own birdbath, prices range from $42.95 to $49.95. Duncraft’s bargain winter birdbaths are their Solar Sippers, ranging from $19.95 to $29.95. But they’ll only keep the water unfrozen if located in full sun where the temperatures never drop below 20 degrees F. Wild Birds Unlimited has a deck-mounted heated birdbath ($91.99), a heated birdbath with stand($102.99), and a heating unit for your own birdbath ($65.99).

Our friend Ben did mention a low-tech alternative. As with most low-tech options, it’s not as simple as plug it in and forget it. But it’s cheap, easy, and it’s guaranteed not to run up your electric bills. It’s the dual bowl system. Buy two inexpensive but sturdy plastic dog water dishes. Fill one with lukewarm water and set it out for your feathered friends. Check occasionally, and when it freezes, bring it inside to thaw and replace it with the second bowl, now filled with lukewarm water. Continue to alternate bowls as one freezes over and the other thaws, making sure you toss the icy water and refill the bowls with lukewarm water before setting them out. Sturdy plastic dog bowls are indestructible, and cost about $5.95 last time I looked.

There’s another low-tech alternative that our friend Ben prefers, however. It’s the indestructible yet flexible black rubber stock bowl. These containers come in a wide range of sizes and depths, and are typically used for livestock (we use them for our chickens, and they’re also a popular choice—in, of course, a much larger size—for horses). Like Duncraft’s Solar Sipper, the black color absorbs heat, keeping water unfrozen longer. But unlike any birdbath known to our friend Ben, if the water does freeze, you can apply a simple technique for ousting the ice so the bowl is ready for instant refilling: Turn the bowl upside down and stomp on it. The flexible bowl will release the block of ice (as long as it’s not too close to the rim, so there’s room for releasing), and you can refill the bowl instantly with lukewarm water. These water containers are available from farm stores like Agway and Tractor Supply (www.tractorsupply.com). Though the price varies according to size, the smaller bowls are under $10, and in our experience, they last forever, no matter how many times they get stomped.

How do you provide water for your winter guests?

* Our friend Ben makes a distinction between folks who like to watch birds casually, especially in their backyards, for pleasure, and those who treat birdwatching as a sporting event and go to great lengths to compete for most bird species seen at a bird count, travel specifically to see birds, buy spotting scopes and other costly equipment, and who will do almost anything to complete their “life lists” of species seen. The first are birdwatchers; the second, birders.