Experts Warn Birdkeepers to Never Use Soap to Clean Bird Baths: ‘If You Don’t Take...’
Bird bubbler, and baby sparrows splashing like little stones in puddles. Then one day, all this animation comes to a standstill. Birds stop by your bird bath but don’t dip inside. They resemble sculptures in freeze frame, hanging frantically in mist. You step outside to solve the mystery and discover that the bird bath has gotten terribly dirty. In a conversation with Southern Living, expert Tracy Hill from Wild Birds Unlimited explained that you need to keep your bird baths clean if you want to attract more and more bird guests. The catch: don't use soap to clean them.
"Cleaning your birdbath and bird feeders is very important for the health of backyard birds. My birdbath wasn’t clean and didn’t have freshwater, so I knew I needed to fix that," Hill said. Geoffrey LeBaron, director of Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count program, shared with the National Audubon Society that neglecting your birdbath doesn’t just make for a filthy experience for your birds: It could also do more harm than good.
“If you don’t take good care of your birdbath, either it will dry out completely, which is no use for birds, or it’ll get fetid. That’s when mosquitoes might become a problem,” LeBaron said. John Wenzel, entomologist and director of the Powdermill Nature Reserve, added that stagnant water in a bird bath can quickly become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and also prompt the growth of red, green, and brown algae, the slimy veneer of which will instantly repel the bird visitors. Plus, your previous visitors could have left some of their droppings, feathers, twigs, or dirt, which needs to be cleaned before new visitors can arrive.
Sometimes, you may spot items like small skulls, chicken drumsticks, baby rabbit legs, floating eyeballs, pizza crust and even road kill floating in your bird bath. As Knox News reports, this is usually a tantrum of big blackbirds like crows and hawks. One birdkeeper even found a crow dipping potato chips in their bird bath to soften them before eating. In such a case, you need to craft a way to distract these birds, probably by providing them with their own bird bath and feeder.
The best way to go is to rinse and scrub it with nine parts water, one part vinegar, LeBaron explains. Remember to place your bird bath close to, but not directly beneath, woody brushes, thick bushes, or feeders. Spilling seeds or falling leaves can quickly accumulate debris in the bathing pool. If your bird guests prefer a good jacuzzi or a spa-like experience, you can also add a heater or bath salts to the bird’s bathtub.
And other times, you may need to do nothing except behold a pristine birdie enjoying its bath, because nature has already designed a bathhouse for them. In 2021, an Indian photographer captured a crimson sunbird taking a bath in the golden cup of a flower petal of a banana flower. Late one evening, he noticed as this sunbird swooped into their yard and started sipping nectar from the banana flower. Once her thirst was quenched, she started bathing in the dew water that got collected in the petal cup. Lit by the glow of the sunset, this nature-inspired bird spa was a sight to behold.