and the birds in that last pic look happy!

Maridell - You would be very surprised at all the birds I've spied using those two bird baths. I have several of the concrete typical bird baths also around my yard. I have never, ever in all my years of having them, seen anywhere near the number of birds I've seen using these homemade bird baths. The birds are drawn to the homemade ones for some reason. I think it is the narrow sides and the bricks that give them places to perch and/or stand in the bird bath to drink and bathe. The concrete bird baths lack those two important features. The homemade bird baths are much cheaper to purchase and easier to move around the yard as well.

Glad you read the article and I hope you will try making one of these homemade bird baths for your own yard! I think you will be very surprised at how much it will get used!

@beckygardener ...........

I've actually done something very similar, but kind of by accident.

I had a plant stand that I wasn't using, and a large plastic saucer that I was just storing. I put a couple of rocks inside instead of bricks.

I had to move it away from where I could see the birds using it because jays noticed the dry cat food I was leaving out for Scamp and decided that it was for them and not for my cat.

Once I moved my birdbath, the birds were in another part of the garden and left Scamp's food alone.

I like the idea of using the tomato cages. It frees up the plant stand again.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn - That's great to hear that your make shift bird bath was also a huge attraction for the birds!

We often have to provide water for our bees and this would work very well for that too! Great idea!

And how easy to keep a spare saucer to switch out during freezing weather. I will try this out, using flat rocks (which I have a lot of) for the bricks. I look forward to this addition to my window-side bird watching, especially during this cold weather.

Arlene - I never thought about bees! Definitely!!!

Deb - I have two sets of saucers (4 total) and two sets of bricks (8 total) which I use to quickly switch out the bird baths when I clean them! When I need to clean my bird baths, I just remove the dirty ones and replace with the already cleaned ones. Clean bricks are ready to be used, too!

Another idea that came to mind is if you host butterflies and fruit loving birds ....

You could use the bird bath for fruit and add a smaller bowl (inside the saucer) of sugar water with a crunched up piece of paper towel in it to absorb the sugar water or gatorade! I use gatorade for the butterflies and they do use it! The fruit attracts some birds, too!

Great ideas splashing around in here I bet I can come up with an unused tomato cage and saucer right here at home. No cost re-purpose!

I agree with @abhege - this is excellent for giving bees a safe place to drink. Many thirsty bees will drown in a normal birdbath where the water is too deep, but having the rocks/bricks allow the bees a safe place to stand while they belly up to the bar.

We keep one on top of the beehive and another one on a stand in the garden to attract bees to pollinate and birds to each the bad bugs and caterpillars.

I would be interested if one of y'all that has bees to let us know how it worked out as a water source for them! I never even thought of the birdbath to used for anything other than birds!