Cast-Iron Garden Bird Bath

Water brings in birds that will never touch a feeder. Warblers, thrushes, waxwings and orioles eat insects and fruit, so a seed feeder is invisible to them — a shallow dish of clean water is not. Put one out and your yard list roughly doubles.

A shallow bowl on a slim iron stake, with cast bird figures around the stem. It pushes straight into a lawn or border, so there is no base to level and nothing to assemble.

What you get

• Shallow bowl on a ground stake, cast iron with a weathered finish
• Decorative bird detailing around the stem
• Freestanding — pushes into soil, no tools

Why shallow matters

Small birds drown in deep water and will not use a bath they cannot stand in. An inch to an inch and a half at the centre is right. If yours sits deeper than that, put a flat stone in the middle — it gives them somewhere to perch and lets bigger birds use it too.

Where to put it

In the open, about ten feet from a shrub. Birds want to see what is coming while they are wet and slow, but they also want cover to reach in one flight. Directly under a tree means falling leaves and droppings in the water.

Keeping it clean

Tip it out and refill every two or three days in warm weather. Standing water goes green and breeds mosquitoes, and dirty baths spread disease between birds. A stiff brush and plain water is all it needs — skip the detergent.