Solar Fountains: Tips & Advice

Let’s talk solar fountains!

If you have a bird bath or small pond in your garden, a fountain is a great way of keeping the water fresh—and provides a pleasing aesthetic as well!

We surveyed the birding and gardening enthusiasts among our parent readers to find their favorite solar water fountains. Then we tried out a few ourselves, seeing how well they’d work in a bird bath.

After all this research, we have a few hints and tips:

• Battery or no battery? Some solar fountains come with a battery backup—that’s so they can continue to work at night or on cloudy days. 

• Anti-collision tubes or suction cups help keep the fountain centered. Most solar water fountains free float around a bird bath or pond. That can be a problem, if they come close to an edge and start spraying water outside the pond. The solution: “anti-collision” tubes that keep the fountain centered and away from the sides. Other fountains have suction cups to adhere the fountain to the bottom of the bird bath.

• Some fountains are louder than others. That matters to birders who don’t want to scare away shy birds!

Here are the solar fountains we’d recommend:

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