The Automotive Accessory That You Can Transform Into A Clever DIY Bird Bath

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If you want to keep birds visiting your garden without relying on seeds, add a bird bath as a water feature. While you can opt for ornate baths from the garden center, you don't need to spend a lot for one. DIY a bath with a handy, inexpensive car accessory: A plastic oil drain pan.

Clean birds fly with more accuracy and crash less often than those that don't, which means they're more likely to escape a predator. To give birds their own personal spa and watering station, you can make one out of any number of things lying around the house or tool shed. For instance, you can even easily DIY a charming bird bath using an old tomato cage. The oil drain pan is a great choice for a DIY garden project, though, because it's already bath-shaped and it's so inexpensive. The black plastic 7-quart pan, which retails for $1.50 at Dollar Tree, can be turned into the perfect place for these colorful visitors to come to drink water and clean their feathers.

You can make a stand for the tray or even put it directly on the ground for feathered friends who search for water there. If you do set the pan on the dirt or grass, just make sure to keep it away from shrubs to avoid giving potential predators, like cats, a place to hide. If you prefer a stand for your pan, you can make one. All you need are the drain pan, two plastic planters of your choice (which you can also find at Dollar Tree), glue, and spray paint.

To make your stand like @WindyCityCraftsVideos on YouTube, set one planter upside down and apply hot glue — or another adhesive that will adhere well to plastic, such as Gorilla clear epoxy. Avoid super glue, which doesn't always stick well to smooth plastic. Apply the epoxy to the bottom of this planter. You'll be setting the other planter straight on top of it right-side up, making a kind of hourglass shape. You'll have about five minutes to adjust the pots before the glue begins to stiffen. Once you've got it where you want it, set something heavy in the top container and let it sit for at least 24 hours.

With the stand set, you can glue the drain tray to the top of the stand. After the glue dries, paint the outside if you like, but leave the bath part unpainted. For the outside, pick a paint that can withstand the weather, but avoid any brands with lead, chromate, or zinc in them, as these chemicals are bad for birds. You won't have to worry about sealing your bird bath, though, since it's plastic. 

Your oil pan bird bath might weigh less than other types, so be sure to secure it by burying the base a bit in the soil or by adding some decorative rocks to the dish. Adding rocks is especially helpful since birds don't really like landing on smooth surfaces. More importantly, they can drown in deep water, so add enough rocks or branches to make sure the bath is no more than 2 inches deep.