'A Malaysian Garden in Sydney'

Antics at the Birdbath

 

A birdbath presents a setting to observe the behaviour of the local bird life.

We installed our first birdbath two years ago, placing it strategically, adjacent to a family room window. Within a very short time, we could observe the growing comfort and confidence of the Noisy Miners, in particular, who became regular patrons of the bath. Little by little, a growing number was using the birdbath… 

A family of Noisy Miners have adopted the birdbath.

For us, it has been very entertaining to sit in our lounge and watch the antics of the birds splashing around.

"Can't a bird get some privacy?"

Even the family cat loves the birdbath... We are fortunate in that she does not stalk our local birds.

Due to the success of the first birdbath, we installed a second in the front yard. The original intention was to provide a water source for the local butterflies. Accordingly, we placed a layer of rocks in the bottom of the basin… perches for the butterflies to alight upon in order to drink from the lapping water.

Unfortunately, the front ‘butterfly bath’ was overtaken by large birds, such as Crows, Magpies and Currawongs. Obviously, the arrival of these creatures became a strong deterrent to butterflies. So, going with the natural flow, we removed the rocks from the base of the bath, allowing the birds to use the bath effectively. Big mistake!

A young Currawong drinks from the 'Butterfly Bath'.

Within a short time, these larger birds had ‘driven away’ all the smaller birds. The crows, in fact, had begun using the birdbath to ‘dunk’ whole bread rolls, provided by our neighbours. Every day, we had to clean out soggy bread from the birdbath…

A large Crow, ready to dunk its bread roll.

Today, the front yard birdbath is a garden monument. Nevertheless, the birdbath has been a pleasurable and entertaining purchase for us, and a valuable source of water for our local suburban wildlife. 

Wishing you hours of enjoyment and contentment in your garden…