Re-purposing something is great. There are quite a lot of bird baths being sold that are pretty, but not good bird design. Birds don't like them too deep or slippery. A large terracotta plant saucer set on the ground works very well, especially with a flat rock inside. I have seen people use lids to metal garbage cans turned upside down, which is a good depth too.
We have a lot of success with birds using our bird pool made out of an old concrete terrazzo shower basin (drain filled in with concrete). It has been in place for 20+ years. At first it was simply set on the ground and we filled it with the garden hose and cleaned it out by sweeping the water out with an old broom. It is wide and shallow enough that it doesn't crack in the winter when the water freezes.
We pounded a pipe into the ground next to it and bent it to hold a one gallon jug over the pool. Poking a tiny hole in the jug and filling it with water gives you several hours of a fine stream or dripping water sounds that attracts warblers when they are migrating through.
In recent years I decided to run a hose from the basement sump pump all the way back to the bird bath to refill it regularly . That noise also attracts birds. I then dug out the area around the bird pool and used rocks and logs to stabilize the soil when the birdbath overflows into the surrounding area. I planted the low spots with rain garden plants which are doing really well. A little too well actually so that now in the summer when the plants fill densely, the bird pool is a little too close to all that vegetation. Birds don't like that because predators can hide there. I have to rearrange things a bit to fix that problem.
If you search for diy birdbath or sump-pump birdbath there are a lot of good pictures to browse through in google images or on you-tube. If you have a sump pump, it is a good way to handle the water and not let it go down the storm or sewer drain. I also have plans to hook it up to rain barrels to store excess water. Special considerations must be made for those of us in areas where it freezes in winter though.
I could blither on more, but I'll just put up some pictures instead for now. These are from spring-time, since it is easier the see before the plants fill in.
The hose is under the rocks at the front right corner of the pool.
This is how I run the hose back there. The house and sump-pump output is at the bottom of the picture. I run most of the black hose through the flower bed where plants quickly cover it. Where it crosses the grass I dug little trenches and buried it a couple of inches, so I could mow over it.
Here you can see the whole rain garden area and my super classy jug hanging from the hook!
Here it is in summer with the plants filled in. Looking a little ominous to birdies I think!
Some visitors:
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Mourning Warbler
Cedar Waxwings
I'm going to try and embed video of the sound of the sump pump running. Changing the location of the pipe changes the sound. Sometimes I have it flow between two rocks to get more of a waterfall effect.
I have another video of a robin enjoying the fresh water which shows the depth of the water pretty well. I think they are the birds that enjoy it the most. Robins love baths!
