Bird Bath Heaters – Help Birds Thru Winter with a Bird Bath Heater

While many birds migrate for the winter months, you’ll find that there are a large number of birds that will stay in the colder climates. A simple birdbath deicer is one thing you can do to help the birds get through the winter.

Birds that stay in the colder climates have a number of challenges to deal with. Their food supply has either gone dormant or is hidden under the ice and snow on the ground. You can do a lot to help your birds by putting out high energy foods in a suet feeder (or for those of you with squirrel problems you might want to try pepper suet). But the food supply is just one issue to deal with. Birds also need an available water supply, and a birdbath with it’s large radiating surface seems like it is designed to freeze quickly and thoroughly. By thawing the water with a bird bath heater you can help make it available to the birds.

Not only is freezing bad for the birds, but it can be destructive to the bird bath itself. Many bird baths are cast with concrete, and as you can see from the roads in the winter, concrete can easily be cracked by freezing water. The design of the bird bath can reduce the ice impact, sloped sides will allow the expanding ice to slide up and not press out against the sides of the bath, but the friction with the rough side surfaces will still cause some pressure. This can even happen with a stone bird bath sometimes.

Gulfstream Birdbath Heater $6.95 Store: Duncraft API Bird Bath Heater De-icer 200watt $41.91 Store: UnbeatableSale, Inc. Allied Precision 12 in. Heated Bird Bath with Metal Stand $51.03 Store: UnbeatableSale, Inc. KH Bird Bath Ice Eliminator Heater 50watt $38.20 Store: UnbeatableSale, Inc. FI 150 Watt Bird Bath Heater Deicer $44.96 Store: UnbeatableSale, Inc. Farm Innovators 250 watt Bird Bath Heater Deicer $43.48 Store: UnbeatableSale, Inc. Birdbath Heater $40.46 Store: Duncraft Deluxe Birdbath Heater $44.96 Store: Duncraft

Bird Bath Heater Features – Things to look for in a bird bath heater. You want a heater that is thermostatically controlled, that is it only turns on when it is cold enough to be needed. The last thing you need is a hot spring in the back yard, and the energy waste that would accompany that.

Power – For a small bath, a 50 W heater may be enough. If you have a large bird bath, consider getting a larger heater. They come in sizes up through 500 W, which will thaw a fairly large bath. Be careful with a plastic bird bath, you don’t want to melt things with a large heater.

Think ahead about how you will run power to the heater. If you have to run a long extension cord anyway, then a short power cord on the heater will not be a problem. But if you have a nearby outlet and want to avoid the extension cord, be sure to check the cord length on the heater.

As an alternative, you may want to look at just using a heated bird bath. The advantage to these is that the heater is already built in and should be the right power level, and the shape of the bird bath should already be designed to handle low termperatures. Some mount easily on a deck railing, so you can get the power to it easily and it’s within view of the inside of the house.