• Ray's copper bird bath in a sunny Australian garden bed
  • Fairy-wren and silvereye at the copper bird bath
  • Close-up of the brushed copper bowl and rolled rim
  • Copper bird bath on a lawn with a flat stone in the bowl
  • Copper bird bath from below against a blue sky
  • Filling the copper bird bath from a watering can

Final run from Ray’s shed in Axedale • In 14 active carts • 26 left

Ray's Summer-Survival Copper Bird Bath

Ray's Summer-Survival Copper Bird Bath

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Ray Kellett
Hand-raised by Ray Kellett
★★★★★ 4.8 (310+)
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Ray's copper bird bath in a sunny Australian garden bed

Ray's Summer-Survival Copper Bird Bath

€44,95
€44,95 €72,95
SAVE €28 Sold out
💧

Hand-raised in a tin shed at Axedale, central Victoria

Ray Kellett, seventy-four, forty years a sheet-metal worker. These are the last bird baths he will ever make.

“In winter people put seed out. In spring they hang a nest box. Come January, when it is forty-two degrees and every puddle in the shire has gone, nobody thinks about water. And that is the one that kills them.”

— Ray Kellett, Axedale VIC
What arrives
🪑The copper bowlTwenty-four centimetres across. Brushed copper finish with dark patina streaks — no two come out identical.
📌The ground stakeCentral stake with the cast scrollwork ring. Push it into lawn or garden bed and it stands firm.
⚡Nothing to assembleOut of the box, into the ground, fill with water. No tools, no fixings, no instructions to lose.
🌿Ray’s placement tipPartial shade, close to a shrub. Drop a flat stone in the middle so the bees can climb out.
Why this one works and the pretty ones do not
🟠The copper skinCopper naturally holds back algae and bacteria in standing water, so it stays cleaner between rinses. The worked surface also gives a bird something to grip — glazed ceramic never will.
🌊The creek-bank gradientThe bowl curves: barely a centimetre of water at the lip, deeper through the middle. Fairy-wrens and silvereyes stand in the shallows, wattlebirds and magpies wade into the centre.
◯The rolled lipThe edge is rolled over instead of cut off square. Solid footing for a landing bird, and a raised edge an insect that has gone in can climb back out over.
👁The stake sightlineHeight is not decoration. Cats in this country kill birds in the order of a million a day. A raised bath with a clear line of sight is far harder to stalk than a dish on the ground.
🥬Two minutes a weekSmooth inside, no corners, nowhere for algae to sit. Rinse under the tap once a week, top the water up daily through the hot months. That is the whole job.
☀Built for an Australian summerMetal, not plastic that cooks the water and goes brittle, and not cheap ceramic that cracks in a hard frost. It is made to sit outside through a run of forty-degree days.

“People assume the hard season for birds is winter. In this country it is the opposite. What comes through our door in January is heat stress and dehydration, and a great deal of it is preventable. A shallow dish of clean water in a suburban garden is not a gesture. On a forty-two degree day it is the difference.”

Dr Marion Petrie, Ph.D.Avian Ecologist · Goldfields Wildlife Rescue, Bendigo VIC
Made for
🌳 Back gardens🏠 Front garden beds🌴 Acreage and hobby farms🏦 Verandahs and courtyards💰 Native and waterwise gardens🎁 A present for a birdwatcher👶 Grandkids who want to watch☀ Heatwave-prone suburbs
What you are actually buying
  • Hand-raised, not pressed out by the thousand — the bowl and the rim are worked by hand, which is why the patina falls differently on every one.
  • Designed by watching, not by drawing — forty years of sitting at a window changing the depth and the rim until the birds actually used it.
  • Metal all the way through — no plastic to go brittle in the sun, no glaze to chip.
  • Sized for small birds first — a fledgling wren can stand in it without going out of its depth.
  • The last of the run — Ray is closing the shed. There is no next batch.
30-day money-back guaranteePut it in the garden and watch what happens. Not convinced? Send it back within 30 days for a full refund. No questions.
A note on the finish. Every bowl is worked by hand and the copper patina is applied by hand, so the streaking and the depth of colour vary from piece to piece. Outdoors the finish will keep moving over the first seasons and settle darker. That is the material doing what copper does — it is not a fault, and it is the reason no two of Ray’s baths look the same.
The details
Material Copper-coated metal, hand-applied polychrome patina
Bowl diameter approx. 24 cm
Bowl profile Curved — shallow at the rolled lip, deeper through the centre
Detailing Cast scrollwork ring below the bowl (a bird and a flower)
Mounting Central ground stake for lawn or garden bed
Included 1 × bowl, 1 × ground stake
Assembly None — push in, fill, done
Care Top up water daily in summer, rinse once a week
Made by Ray Kellett, Axedale, Victoria
Availability Final production run — while stocks last
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The Last Run

A note from the shed:

Ray Kellett has worked the same bench in the same corrugated iron shed at Axedale, east of Bendigo, since 1983. Forty years of gutters, downpipes, flashings and rainwater tanks — and, on the side, everything the birds in his garden needed.

The arthritis has got into his knuckles now, and raising a bowl and turning a rim is exactly the work that will not wait for hands that shake. There is nobody to hand the shed on to. What is left on the shelf along the back wall is the last of it, and his granddaughter Chloe is getting it out the door for him before the summer.

“It is not about the money any more. It is about getting a decent bath into as many gardens as I can before the next January.”

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Free Shipping Australia-wide

Free shipping across Australia

- Delivery time: 3–7 business days
- Every bath is hand-packed and ships from the shed
- Tracked and insured

Dimensions

- Bowl diameter approx. 24 cm
- Curved bowl: a few millimetres of water at the rolled lip, deeper through the centre
- Central ground stake for lawn or garden bed
- Included: 1 × bowl, 1 × ground stake. Nothing to assemble.

View full details

310+ Verified Buyers

Excellent 4.8

What people say about Ray’s bird baths

Bird bath in a suburban front garden bed

I had a glazed dish out there for two years and not one bird ever touched it. Put Ray’s copper one in the front bed and within a week I had wattlebirds, wrens and a rosella all having a go at it. Chalk and cheese.

Verified

Lorraine K., Shepparton, VIC

Wattlebird bathing, seen from the kitchen window

I watch it from the kitchen window with my tea. The wattlebird has a full bath every morning at about seven and half the water ends up on the lawn. Best thing I have put in that garden.

Verified

Judith M., Ballarat, VIC

Four birds at the bird bath on a scorching summer day

Through that run of forty-plus days in January this was the only water on the whole street. We counted twelve birds around it at once. My neighbour saw it over the fence and ordered one that afternoon.

Verified

Trevor M., Dubbo, NSW

Bird bath just unpacked and pushed into the garden

Out of the box, into the garden bed, filled it from the watering can. Took about a minute. It has real weight to it — you can tell it is metal all the way through and not one of those thin pressed things.

Verified

Gavin D., Toowoomba, QLD

Filling the bird bath with a watering can in the garden

Bought it for Mum’s birthday. She rang me the day after she put it out to tell me about the birds. That was the whole present, really.

Verified

Petra N., Adelaide, SA

Bird bath in a pot beside a verandah, honeyeater drinking

We are on a small block with no room for a big pedestal, so it went into a pot by the verandah with the herbs. The spinebill turned up within three days and has not stopped since.

Verified

Helen R., Hobart, TAS

Fairy-wren splashing in the copper bowl

The fairy-wrens sit in the shallow bit at the edge and the bigger birds go into the middle. That is exactly what he says it does, and it is exactly what it does.

Verified

Karen S., Ipswich, QLD

Bird bath in a suburban front garden bed

I had a glazed dish out there for two years and not one bird ever touched it. Put Ray’s copper one in the front bed and within a week I had wattlebirds, wrens and a rosella all having a go at it. Chalk and cheese.

Verified

Lorraine K., Shepparton, VIC

Wattlebird bathing, seen from the kitchen window

I watch it from the kitchen window with my tea. The wattlebird has a full bath every morning at about seven and half the water ends up on the lawn. Best thing I have put in that garden.

Verified

Judith M., Ballarat, VIC

Four birds at the bird bath on a scorching summer day

Through that run of forty-plus days in January this was the only water on the whole street. We counted twelve birds around it at once. My neighbour saw it over the fence and ordered one that afternoon.

Verified

Trevor M., Dubbo, NSW

Bird bath just unpacked and pushed into the garden

Out of the box, into the garden bed, filled it from the watering can. Took about a minute. It has real weight to it — you can tell it is metal all the way through and not one of those thin pressed things.

Verified

Gavin D., Toowoomba, QLD

Filling the bird bath with a watering can in the garden

Bought it for Mum’s birthday. She rang me the day after she put it out to tell me about the birds. That was the whole present, really.

Verified

Petra N., Adelaide, SA

Bird bath in a pot beside a verandah, honeyeater drinking

We are on a small block with no room for a big pedestal, so it went into a pot by the verandah with the herbs. The spinebill turned up within three days and has not stopped since.

Verified

Helen R., Hobart, TAS

Fairy-wren splashing in the copper bowl

The fairy-wrens sit in the shallow bit at the edge and the bigger birds go into the middle. That is exactly what he says it does, and it is exactly what it does.

Verified

Karen S., Ipswich, QLD

Bird bath in a suburban front garden bed

I had a glazed dish out there for two years and not one bird ever touched it. Put Ray’s copper one in the front bed and within a week I had wattlebirds, wrens and a rosella all having a go at it. Chalk and cheese.

Verified

Lorraine K., Shepparton, VIC

Wattlebird bathing, seen from the kitchen window

I watch it from the kitchen window with my tea. The wattlebird has a full bath every morning at about seven and half the water ends up on the lawn. Best thing I have put in that garden.

Verified

Judith M., Ballarat, VIC

Four birds at the bird bath on a scorching summer day

Through that run of forty-plus days in January this was the only water on the whole street. We counted twelve birds around it at once. My neighbour saw it over the fence and ordered one that afternoon.

Verified

Trevor M., Dubbo, NSW

Bird bath just unpacked and pushed into the garden

Out of the box, into the garden bed, filled it from the watering can. Took about a minute. It has real weight to it — you can tell it is metal all the way through and not one of those thin pressed things.

Verified

Gavin D., Toowoomba, QLD

Filling the bird bath with a watering can in the garden

Bought it for Mum’s birthday. She rang me the day after she put it out to tell me about the birds. That was the whole present, really.

Verified

Petra N., Adelaide, SA

Bird bath in a pot beside a verandah, honeyeater drinking

We are on a small block with no room for a big pedestal, so it went into a pot by the verandah with the herbs. The spinebill turned up within three days and has not stopped since.

Verified

Helen R., Hobart, TAS

Fairy-wren splashing in the copper bowl

The fairy-wrens sit in the shallow bit at the edge and the bigger birds go into the middle. That is exactly what he says it does, and it is exactly what it does.

Verified

Karen S., Ipswich, QLD

Bird bath in a suburban front garden bed

I had a glazed dish out there for two years and not one bird ever touched it. Put Ray’s copper one in the front bed and within a week I had wattlebirds, wrens and a rosella all having a go at it. Chalk and cheese.

Verified

Lorraine K., Shepparton, VIC

Wattlebird bathing, seen from the kitchen window

I watch it from the kitchen window with my tea. The wattlebird has a full bath every morning at about seven and half the water ends up on the lawn. Best thing I have put in that garden.

Verified

Judith M., Ballarat, VIC

Four birds at the bird bath on a scorching summer day

Through that run of forty-plus days in January this was the only water on the whole street. We counted twelve birds around it at once. My neighbour saw it over the fence and ordered one that afternoon.

Verified

Trevor M., Dubbo, NSW

Bird bath just unpacked and pushed into the garden

Out of the box, into the garden bed, filled it from the watering can. Took about a minute. It has real weight to it — you can tell it is metal all the way through and not one of those thin pressed things.

Verified

Gavin D., Toowoomba, QLD

Filling the bird bath with a watering can in the garden

Bought it for Mum’s birthday. She rang me the day after she put it out to tell me about the birds. That was the whole present, really.

Verified

Petra N., Adelaide, SA

Bird bath in a pot beside a verandah, honeyeater drinking

We are on a small block with no room for a big pedestal, so it went into a pot by the verandah with the herbs. The spinebill turned up within three days and has not stopped since.

Verified

Helen R., Hobart, TAS

Fairy-wren splashing in the copper bowl

The fairy-wrens sit in the shallow bit at the edge and the bigger birds go into the middle. That is exactly what he says it does, and it is exactly what it does.

Verified

Karen S., Ipswich, QLD

See Ray’s Last Bird Baths

Frequently Asked Questions

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Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.

Email us anytime at support@backroad-goods.com. We answer Monday–Friday 9am–5pm and Saturday 10am–3pm. Whether it is about your order, where to put the bath in your garden or how often to top it up — a real person writes back, usually the same day.

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Can I return it if it is not for me?

Of course. 30-day money-back guarantee. Put it in the garden, live with it a week, and if it is not right, email support@backroad-goods.com within 30 days and we will make it right. No questions, no argument.

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How is it made?

Ray raises each bowl and rolls the rim by hand in his shed at Axedale, then applies the copper finish and the patina by hand. Because of that the streaking and the depth of colour vary from piece to piece — no two come out identical. The central stake and the cast scrollwork ring are fitted in the same shed. Outdoors the finish keeps moving over the first seasons and settles darker. That is copper doing what copper does.

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    Free Shipping Australia-wide

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    Copper-Coated Metal, Not Plastic

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    30-Day Guarantee

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    Made in Axedale, Victoria