Bird Bath heaters are a great way to keep the water in your existing bird bath ice free all winter. You could also purchase a heated bird bath that has the heater built in to the bath.

Here is a link that might be useful: Heated Bird Baths

I use one and the birds love it. I have one with the built in heater . Mine keeps the water from freezing as low as -37 C .At -40 C & F are the same. The spruce twigs I just put in as the birds seem to like it better.This must have been one of the warmer days as usualy there is a rim of frost.

I have the kind you set into the birdbath. I'm thinking the one with the built-in heater might be nice, so you don't have to deal with an external heater. Don't forget to us a GFCI outlet. I have my heated birdbath going every winter, and the birds always use it.

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I use the Duncraft heated bath that sits in a metal rack. These last three or four years for me. I like that you can get a non-corded saucer to fit in the rack for the warm weather.

Birds that don't normally come to the feeders will come to the heated bath in the winter.

Northern Flicker

Hermit Thrush

And then there's the European Starling just enjoying having warm feet.

Claire

I have three different heaters and I also have one of the 'ground heated bird baths'. The ground birds love it, as do the squirrels, rabbits, etc.
I would suggest you forget buying a heater that is less than 150watts if you get any hard freezes. We had one of the 44 watt (Farm Innovators) heaters and found it useless.

In addition to the heaters listed below, we have a 10" circular silicon-type heater that works really well in a shallow bird bath, but for the deeper bird baths I use the heaters shown here.

Ground heater
Another heater

Here is a link that might be useful: Heater for deep bird baths

You might also consider using a cover for the connection between your extension cord and the heater cord to make sure the connection is watertight, particularly if it's buried in snow.

These are two examples that are available online - I use similar ones I got somewhere (I don't remember where).

Duncraft Cord Shield

Farm Innovators CC-2 Cord Connect Water-Tight Cord Lock - Green

Claire

Beautiful pictures everyone! Here's one of a mourning dove enjoying the warm rock. She thinks it's a spa.

I've had this one for years, and it's well worth the money. I actually just tried to leave my glowing review but I'm thrown into an error page.

Duncraft All Seasons Heated Birdbath

Beautiful pic of the mourning dove catherinet!

Thanks dreamgarden. I just point and shoot.......the birds provide all the wonderful subject matter! :)

Neat picture of the mourning dove. Had to plug in my heater this morning as the water was frozen solid and a Pileated Woodpecker was pecking at it trying to break through the ice. Came back after I put water in it.

Neat picture of the mourning dove. Had to plug in my heater this morning as the water was frozen solid and a Pileated Woodpecker was pecking at it trying to break through the ice. Came back after I put water in it.

Neat picture of the mourning dove. Had to plug in my heater this morning as the water was frozen solid and a Pileated Woodpecker was pecking at it trying to break through the ice. Came back after I put water in it.

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This post was edited by beegood on Sat, Oct 25, 14 at 17:34

Why does a post come up 3 times when I previewed it once and posted it once and then it won't let me delete. Very frustrating.All I got another post saying message deleted.