Laura Erickson's For the Birds

In a world filled with social injustice and strife, crime, war, and health care crises, people calling into radio talk shows in the Twin Cities seem to be getting most agitated about another issue altogether: whether or not bird baths should be provided in the winter, and whether or not we should be heating them. Apparently during extreme cold, some birds have become coated with water that froze, and the birds have died.

It’s really completely unnecessary to provide water for birds in winter. Hard as it may be to believe, birds are more highly evolved than humans in terms of surviving the extremes of a temperate climate. By January and February, there is seldom much available water in the wild, yet wild birds do just fine without it. Of course, they can always eat snow, but melting it absorbs body heat too precious to spare unless they’re extremely water-stressed. Most of our wintering birds live on seeds, which have a very low water content, but their winter droppings are so concentrated and dry that they lose very little water that way. We lose moisture through our eyeballs. Birds have relatively much larger eyes than we, but they expose a much smaller area of their eyes to the elements. We waste an enormous amount of water every time we breathe, but birds have a much more efficient respiratory system that keeps virtually all the moisture inside their bodies. You seldom see the breath of a bird, or see their eyelashes and mustache feathers covered with frost.

So birds don’t really need extra water. But as King Lear said, “O reason not the need!” The way little birds gather at a dripping icicle on a sunny day, it’s obvious that even if they don’t need it, they want it pretty bad. So on days when the temperature is above 20 or so, I set out bowls of water which a wide variety of feeder birds seem to appreciate.

But I have real misgivings about warming water with a heater, especially when the temperature is below 10 or 15. When the air is that cold, the water starts steaming, which coats feathers and destroys their insulation value. I also suspect that when the temperature is severely cold, birds are less thirsty than just plain cold. They’re attracted less by the drinking water than they are be the warmth of the heater, not unlike how a frozen, naked human might be attracted to a hot tub. That wonderful warmth can be enough to cloud a bird’s judgment, and once it jumps in, it’s not likely to survive the getting out again. Some people cover the birdbath with a screen to keep birds from jumping in, but on those really cold days, the steam will still coat their feathers. Providing water in winter can be a kind and merciful thing to do, but too much of a good thing can be fatal.