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Winter water heater. (1 Viewer)

Ruff

Two birds in one.
I'm wondering if people in northern climes have any experience with bird bath water heaters. Armed with the information that birds are highly attracted to liquid water sources in winter, I've put such a heater on my family list of suggested Christmas presents. However, meantime I've been putting out a shallow Tupperware container of water every morning and skimming off ice as necessary, but it's being completely ignored by birds at the feeder. It occurs to me that birds at my North American latitude (+45 degrees N) may not have any use for water at all, I mean in winter. If a heater is under the tree on the 25th, it will pull about 150 watts and I'd run it for a few hours around midday- a minor and worthwhile expense, but I don't want to be wasting my time. Any experiences with heated water for birds?
 
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Imagine the busiest moment at you feeder you seen, a moment where there was just crazy activity and such a large number at once. Now Take that moment and replace the feeder with a bath, in the winter drinking stations are more popular than feeders and with all kinds of life (not just seed eating birds).

I always believed Ground mounted bathes are better and more active being it is natural for the birds to be on the ground drinking. I have this one..
http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovators-FS-1-Seasons-Birdbath/dp/B000HHSMTW/ref=pd_sim_lg_10

I had a cheap plastic pedestal bath before so i recently bought one of these for it.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=9089+8776+26441&pcatid=26441

Both these heaters are small but will do the job if placed correctly (like out of direct wind). I think most heaters on the market are over kill for the average size bath (who needs 250 watts of power for a bowl of water??). I believe the most heaters are on a thermostat that just switches on and off the power at a certain temperature. So if you have a 250watt heater when the thermostat turns on it turns on the full 250 till the temp goes up. So the only difference between the larger output heaters vs the smaller is the full blown power. That brings the question how much water needs how much wattage to keep the water liquid? You have a bunch of factors that can affect this question also like winds, sun, warmth or insulation around the bath, etc. How cold does it get by you? what is the aver cold you get in the winter? Can you place something infront of the bath to break the wind up? is the bath cheap thin plastic or thick cement? these questions really matter when it comes to what wattage you really need to heat the water.

most heated bird baths are shallow and don't hold lots of water and to make matters worse as the heater does its job you will actually lose water from that alone. This may sound like a bad idea but whenever you are warming up water you to a lesser degree are cooking what is in the water like poo and chemicals used to treat the water. Cleaning will be needed every other day as with a refill would be..these two kind of work out together.

the more heated baths you have the less traffic on each one which means the water will last a bit longer. Going with two 80 watt heaters will use less than one 250 watt heater, so again go smaller and if there is lots of traffic add another one later.

In the summer months everyone has a pool, pond, fountains, watering their grass, etc. In the winter where is there water? the closest river? a heated bird bath in your back yard may be the only place for water in your area...
 
Great info, Aloof1. Thanks for all that!

I have a heater in a birdbath but so far the birds haven't found it. They drink dripping water from the neighbour's gutters and failing that, eat snow. That's the reason I bought the heater but unfortunately had to move the birdbath from it's summer place to a new place (actually closer to the feeders) and the poor guys haven't realized it's there yet.
 
I always believed Ground mounted bathes are better and more active being it is natural for the birds to be on the ground drinking. I have this one..
http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovators-FS-1-Seasons-Birdbath/dp/B000HHSMTW/ref=pd_sim_lg_10
.

Agree with you on ground mounted water sources being more natural and good on you for putting out water for the wintering birds.
One question:
How easy is it to clean that bath?
I found that baths get grotty pretty quickly when they are popular. Smooth baths with some flat stones to give traction were easy to clean for me, but it would be nice to have a one piece solution.
 
I take it inside and scrub it down with vinegar or a bit of regular dish soap. I love the surface of this bath because it has that sandy grain to it and the birds seem to love it, so much so I take it inside late Spring so the birds start using one of the fountains instead.

Today its 20 degrees outside by me and i must say it is really awesome seeing the little ones stop in for a drink!
 
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