Des Shaded Bird Bath AUS
“By three in the afternoon, the bird bath was hot, half empty and green.” — The shaded bird bath a retired Riverland tank-maker designed for summer water and winter seed, and why the last ones are now on sale at a special price.
Most bird baths in Australia have the same weak spot: they sit in full sun. By mid-afternoon on a 40-degree day the water is hot, half of it has evaporated, and what is left has leaves, dust and droppings floating on top. The small birds that need it most end up with nothing they will drink.
It hits the small birds hardest. A fairy-wren, a silvereye or a young honeyeater has to drink every hour or two in the heat, and it needs a shallow dish it can stand in, close to cover, that still holds clean water in the afternoon. Heat is now one of the biggest killers of birds in this country. In January 2010, around two hundred Carnaby’s black-cockatoos died in a single afternoon near Hopetoun in WA when it reached 48 degrees.
Des Barwick spent his working life building rainwater tanks in the Riverland. When he saw his wife’s bird bath dry and too hot to touch, the fix seemed obvious to him: keep the sun off the water.
Left: January, 44 degrees and the water still cool and clean at three o’clock. Right: July, the same dish filled with seed, dry under the roof.
Hot, Dirty Water Makes Birds Sick
Hot water isn’t just unpleasant. Wildlife carers will tell you birds won’t drink water that is too warm, and on a heatwave afternoon that is the difference that matters. Water in full sun also evaporates by lunchtime, and warm, sunlit water is where algae and mosquito larvae grow fastest.
Then there is everything that falls from above. A bath under a tree is where the birds feel safe, and the branch is where they wait their turn. Droppings, gum leaves, bark and dust land in an open dish and sit in the water. BirdLife Australia’s advice is simple: keep water shallow, clean and in the shade.
A roof takes care of most of this. Water that stays shaded and covered stays cooler and cleaner, and clean water is the single most useful thing you can do to keep disease from passing from bird to bird. You still rinse the dish each morning, but you are rinsing a clean dish, not scrubbing out a green one.
Birds don’t struggle in a heatwave because nobody puts out water. They struggle because the water is hot, empty or dirty by the time they need it.
The Weeks That Matter Most
Birds don’t go looking for water when they are already in trouble; they fly to water they already know. Honeyeaters, wrens and wagtails work out their summer rounds in the warm weeks of spring, and a garden with clean water in the shade in November is a garden they come back to in January.
The heat is the reason. On a 45-degree day a small bird can lose several per cent of its body weight in water within a few hours, just trying to stay cool. It won’t spend that time searching. It goes where it knows the water is.
A Tank-Maker’s Answer to the Heat
Des built rainwater tanks for fruit blocks and farmhouses along the Murray for most of his life. In December 2019, during the hottest week on record, his wife Coral found her bird bath dry and too hot to touch, with a red wattlebird panting beside it. That afternoon Des bent a small roof out of an offcut of tank iron and hung a dish of water underneath it.
By the next afternoon the honeyeaters were queuing on the branch above it. In winter Coral filled the same dish with seed, and the roof kept the showers off. The neighbours asked for one, then their families did.
He makes it in two shapes. The Umbrella has a ribbed canopy over a deep round dish and throws a wide circle of shade from a gum branch. The Cottage Roof has a pitched roof on four posts and looks right under a verandah.
What the Roof Does
Before it goes in the box, every roof gets a last polish by hand. The roof reaches well past the rim, so the afternoon sun stays off the water.
Five reasons a shaded dish works better than an open one:
- Shelter from sun and rain. The birds drink and bathe under cover. The roof keeps direct sun off the dish, and in winter it keeps the showers off the seed.
- Water stays cool, food stays dry. No hot water by lunchtime, no empty dish by three, no soggy seed in winter. What you put out stays usable for the birds.
- Nothing falls in from above. Droppings, gum leaves and dust land on the roof, not in the dish, which makes it far more hygienic for the birds that use it.
- Made for the small birds. The dish is shallow and hangs near cover. Wrens and silvereyes stand in it to drink and bathe, out of reach of the cat.
- One dish for the whole year. Water from October to April, seed from May to September. Cleaning takes thirty seconds under the tap.
Get shade and clean water into your garden before the first heatwave.
A$99A$69
Why Most People Hang Two or Three
Two baths a few metres apart, one under the trees and one under the verandah. In winter, seed in one and water in the other.
Wattlebirds want a bath to themselves and will chase every small bird off a dish they have claimed. Wrens and silvereyes want to drink close to thick cover. With two baths a few metres apart, the chasing stops and the garden gets busier.
One bath helps the birds in one corner of the garden. And because it works all year, a cool, shaded drink in summer and dry seed in winter, two or three do far more. Hung a few metres apart near different shrubs, they give more birds at once shade and clean water in a heatwave and a dry feed when the cold weather comes. That is why most people order more than one.
Where to Hang It
The best spot is head height, in shade, within a couple of metres of a bottlebrush, a grevillea or any thick shrub. Fairy-wrens and silvereyes like to dart into cover when a butcherbird comes over, and they use a dish far more when the cover is close. Keep it well away from anything a cat could jump from.
A gum branch, a verandah beam, a pergola or a balcony bracket all work; the chain and S-hook go over any of them without tools. On days over 35, top it up again at lunchtime. Pick a spot you can see from the kitchen window.
What Turns Up
Coral keeps a list on the verandah table. On a hot afternoon she has counted nine species at one dish: superb fairy-wrens, New Holland honeyeaters, silvereyes, a willie wagtail, red wattlebirds and crested pigeons among them. In winter it is finches and sparrows coming in for the seed.
His granddaughter Tayla set up a small online shop for the last batch and priced them at A$69. “I’d rather they end up in eighty-eight gardens than sit in the shed,” Des says.
There won’t be more after these. Des’s hands no longer let him cut and bend sheet metal, so this winter he stopped. What is left are the roofs he finished before that, now being fitted and boxed. When they are gone, there won’t be another batch.
A reader in Mildura, the day hers arrived. By the next morning she had a willie wagtail and two silvereyes in the water.
Eighty-eight left from the final batch.
A$99A$69
From Customers
“Our concrete bath was hot and empty by lunchtime every summer. This one hangs under the verandah and the water stays cool all afternoon. The wrens are in it from morning till dusk.”
“I bought it for summer water, but it works just as well in winter with seed in it. The roof keeps the rain off and the finches love it.”
Common Questions
Is it for water or for seed?
Both. From October to April it’s a shaded bird bath: the roof keeps the sun, dust and whatever falls from the branch out of the water. From May to September, tip it out and fill it with seed; the same roof keeps the showers off.
Will cats get at it?
Not if it hangs free. The hook goes over a branch, a verandah beam or a bracket and the dish hangs in the air with nothing to climb. The birds have the branch above for cover.
How do I clean it?
Tip out what’s left, rinse it under the tap and refill. Once a week, use hot water and a brush. With no corners, it takes about thirty seconds.
More From Customers
“We hung two, one under the gum and one under the verandah. There is shade and water at every hour of the day now, and the wattlebird can’t chase everyone off both.”
“Small, sturdy and it does exactly what it says: cool, clean water on the hottest days. I’ve already ordered another for my mum.”
Get shade and clean water into your garden before the first heatwave.
2 for A$124.20 · 3 for A$175.95 · 4 for A$220.80 · Free shipping · 90-day money-back guarantee
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