Ideas for decorating a bird bath please .

I would love to hear some ideas or see some pictures of what you have done.I just got one and have no ideas ....Help please


sorry i didnt know where to put this .

I'm not quite sure what you are asking.
Don't put anything in the 'bowl', that will deter the birds.
I plant short (2 ft.) Dahlias around the base.
Looks nice.
Andy P

i'm wondering if you could put a small about of brightly colored marbles right in the middle so that the sun would reflect off of them. just a thought.

I purchased a brightly colored round platter at Pier 1 and placed it in my concrete colored birdbath. It's looks very pretty and the birds love it.

That's a really neat idea. I never thought of that. I have a Pier 1 up the road from me a bit. I can measure off my concrete birdbath and see if they have anything that would work. That place has one heck of a huge inventory and surely they must have something in glass or ceramic that will work for me. My favorite birdbath has a crack in it that I tried to fix a few times and it is still losing water. Thanks for mentioning that kyjoy.

A plate as an insert would be easier to clean also. What a great idea.

thanks sarah thats what i was asking.

Although I couldn't find a ceramic plate to fit my birdbath, I went to Pier 1 Imports and took a few photos of some really great platters.

And I found this one which was really neat-

Then I found this which I thought would be great for putting grape jelly on for orioles because I have a spot in one tree where I could wedge it in-

So I got up to the counter to buy it and the gal flipped it over to wrap it and I found this-

I didn't purchase it. Just for the heck of it, I went back and flipped over the other ceramic platters that I had been looking at and every one of them stated they were not for food use. The lead content in glazes used in Asia is extremely high and many of the platters and bowls offered by Pier 1 were created for decorative purposes. Lead will leech into water and it will cause a lot of problems for birds or as well as other wildlife that may use it. Although the platters were considerably more attractive and definitely had more appeal to me, I special ordered a large blown glass platter that I think will work perfectly for me. The gal there was a birder and she showed me a few food safe platters and bowls as well as an actual birdbath that was for sale that was safe for wildlife but nothing they had on the floor that was in the food safe glazes appealed to me- figures. Glass may be the way to go if we're going to use these as inserts for birdbaths. I think I know which platter kyjoy bought for herself because there was a brightly colored glass platter there in a pattern called "confetti". It wasn't the right size for me which was a real bummer because it was a gorgeous platter.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not home during the day and I would think by adding anthing into the bowl, you'd be taking water away from the birds. I have 2 birdbaths, one has a very deep bowl and the other is shallow. The shallow one is basically decorative even though I clean and fill it every morning. The deep one is the one the birds really enjoy and I usually have to refill it when I get home from work. Get a few robins in there and they splash like crazy. However, the smaller birds use it all day for drinking and there is always a crowd of them hanging out at the "pool" most of the day.

Equilibrium, I am glad you found that label. As I was reading the post about the plates I decided to send in a note that many of the decorative plates and platters are not food safe. It isn't just ones from Asia either. I work with clay and there are many glazes that are not food safe. If you aren't sure don't use it.

Lead makes some of the most beautiful colors there are other chemicals used in glazes that are not food safe as well. When you buy handmade pottery it is a good idea to ask if it is food safe. Some potters don't say and/or don't know.

Lead certainly does make for some brilliant red glazes. I should have made the connection that a lead glaze in a bird bath would be nothing but trouble given how negatively even small amounts of lead can affect us humans but you look at those platters and think the impact will be so minute that it won't matter. The one gal at Pier 1 is a birder and she began throwing facts and figures at me so I just gave up on the ceramic decortive platters and let her order the large glass platter from another store that had it in stock. I guess they can do store to store transfers of merchandise which suits me as the other Pier 1 was quite a distance away. I like the glass platter I will be buying... I just don't like it as much as the second ceramic platter of bubbles that I photographed. I did really want to buy that square platter because it would have worked perfectly for me to ram down in a Hawthorn tree as a serving platter for grape jelly. Truth be known, I made the connection only because I had planned on using the platter for grape jelly and the "not food safe" stuck out like a sore thumb when she was wrapping the platter in tissue. It wasn't until I got to talking with the other gal who was showing me platters that were safe that I thought to go take a look at the other round ceramic platters. All were made in China and not one of them was food safe. The gal told me that putting water in it for birds would actually be worse than spreading jelly out on them. Is this true? I suppose it makes sense given the size of their little bodies.

I don't know if its Pick on Joy Week or what, but everytime I answer or put a suggestion on this board the same people critize it and pick it apart. So - I'm leaving this board the same way I entered, empty handed.

P. S. : Can I have my membership money back?

No one is picking on you, Joy. It would be irresponsible not to bring up issues with ideas and such. Most of the people on DG are really great and they've saved me more than once with some of my less than well thought out plans. I'm sorry you consider this a negative experience. No one went out of their way to make it so.

My rear has been bailed out more times than I can count. Matter of fact, it's getting bailed out in three threads that I can think of right now and this would be the 4th thread it is getting bailed out in because the concrete yard art store quoted me $200 to pick up and return my 300lb concrete birdbath and another $50-$75 to repair it. kyjoy saved me well over $200 because the glass platter I bought which holds water was only $40. That birdbath has sentimental value to me and I would have let them come and pick it up to repair it. I thank you very very much for mentioning your round platter idea. Yes, it may be a little shallow for some species of birds but it will be very easy to clean, it will look attractive, and it will hold water which is a big step up from what I've currently got for the birds out front given my birdbath has two cracks in it and leaks like a sieve. Just my opinion.

Please don't feel picked on. We have everyones interest in mind. No one can know everything.

As far as water and jelly I don't know. I do know that citris brings out the lead more than anything.