When it's hot outside, humans need to be mindful about staying cool and hydrated. This goes for wild birds, too. Wild birds need shade, shelter, and water during the summer as well as during the winter. Learn how to attract birds into your yard by providing bird houses and bird baths for hot weather.

Three Steps to Attract Wild Birds in Hot Weather

You can attract wild birds to your yard despite hot weather with these three easy tips:

Provide shade for wild birds

Keep a bird bath

Provide bird seed and bird suet

Insulate bird houses

Providing Shady Bird Houses

Wild birds look for shady areas to rest during the hottest parts of the day. Birds love to perch on the branches of trees and shrubs beneath canopies of dense green leaves. The shade provided by bird houses and woody plants offer birds a cool place to escape from the sun.

Bird Baths

Birds love water, and they need it to keep cool and to keep their feathers clean. You don't even need to buy a traditional bird bath. You can use any flat, wide container placed on a flower pot to substitute as a traditional bird bath. Of course, setting up a real bird bath not only adds beauty to your yard, it also provides the specific types of water features birds are attracted to most.

Choose the Right Bird Bath

Choosing the right bird bath is important. Make sure the bird bath you choose has a shallow area. If your bird bath is too deep, then smaller birds will avoid bathing there. If you want to get creative, you can add flat rocks to deeper bird baths to create a ledge to attract smaller birds.

Running Water in a Bird Bath

The sound of running water is paramount to attracting birds. The sound of running water is what alerts birds to the presence of water and will act as a catalyst in attracting birds to your yard. You can create this running water in your bird bath by using a simple bubbler, dripper, or fountain pump.

Keep Bird Bath Water Cool

Birds, like humans, want to stay as cool as possible in hot weather. A bird bath with cool water is a great way to help birds fight the heat. You can do this by simply refilling the water in your birdbath with a hose or adding ice cubes to the water a few times a day.

Bird Bath Location

Set up your bird bath in an open area of the yard. The more open space around your bird bath, the more birds are going to come to bathe. Birds have natural predators, and the open space will not allow predators to hide anywhere near your bird bath. This provides a feeling of safety for the birds and will keep them coming back to bathe in your yard.

Bird Houses and Habitats

Here are some tips for how to provide bird houses and shade to keep backyard birds cool during the summer:

Insulate your bird house

Use mist

Utilize shade

Bird Seed and Suet

Birds are attracted to food sources, so having a constant supply of bird seed or high-energy bird suet will ensure your backyard friends keep coming back.

When supplying bird feed to birds during the summer, consider a no-melt type of bird suet.

Insulation for Bird Houses

To keep birds cool during the summer, try to add insulation to your bird houses. This will keep the inside of the bird house from getting too hot.

To insulate a bird house, nail a piece of plywood part of the way into the roof of the birdhouse. This allows air to flow in between the two roofs and acts as an air conditioner by keeping the house in the shade and promoting air movement.

Use Mist to Keep Backyard Birds Cool

You can use misters by attaching them to bird baths or shrubs that will spray a light mist for birds to fly through. Birds also like to rub themselves against wet foliage (hummingbirds especially like mist). You can also use the mist setting on the nozzle on your hose or use a very light sprinkler to dampen your shrubs and make them birds-friendly.

Utilize Shade for Attracting Birds

It may seem like common sense, but one of the best ways to help birds escape the heat is to use shade. Birds will often lie low during the hottest part of the day, so keeping your bird bath or bird feeder in shade will give them a reason to hang out there. Some bird feeders even come with their own shades or roofs that create shade if you don't have many trees or large shrubs in your yard.

These tips will help you keep birds in and around your yard during the hotter days so you can enjoy bird watching in your back yard all year.