Home and garden centers, specialty or hardware stores and mailorder catalogs stock a variety of attractive birdbaths which both decorate the yard and provide essential water for bird visitors. Choose from many different styles in terra cotta, cement, plastic, or glazed pottery. Be sure your choice can withstand freezing weather, so you can leave it outdoors to provide water during the winter months.
While it is not necessary to set the birdbath upon a pedestal, it is safer for the birds. They are less vulnerable to attack by neighborhood cats which are major predators of songbirds. Those birdbath models that are hung by a set of chains from a hook in a tree limb or pot hanger mounted on a wooden post are the safest. Baths raised off of the ground are also easier to reach for cleaning and filling.
See the files in Yardener’s Tool Shed dealing with bird baths
