With the unusually warm weather we have been having the last two months, heated bird baths have not been as necessary as normal. A caller mentioned the other day that he’d better check his because he had had to chip ice in it. A brief power outage can shut them down, and you don’t know it. While they are nice for the birds, birds can get caught in the ice. I’ve wondered if a smart move might be to position a couple of small branches across the bird bath so that small birds settle on them before trying to drink rather than dipping their feet into the water and risk getting their little feet frozen. That is a sad situation with which I have dealt. At the very least, check your heated bird bath regularly and do whatever you can to keep the little birds’ feet out of the water so that they do not get frozen into it.
Thanks for caring about the critters,
Patti