7 Ways To Keep Birds Cool in Summer

While you're relaxing in the air conditioning or pool, sipping an icy drink, or enjoying a breeze, have you wondered how to keep birds cool in summer? The hottest summer days can leave birds extra warm, but fortunately, there are many easy, effective ways backyard birders can help birds keep cool even when temperatures rise.

How to Keep Birds Cool in Summer:

1. Provide Extra Water

Giving birds extra water for drinking and bathing is the best way to help them keep cool. Add multiple bird baths to the yard, including ground level basins, pedestal baths, and hanging baths or waterers. This will give different birds different options for accessing water, and provide more bathing and drinking space for every feathered visitor. Adding a solar fountain to a bath will also help alert more birds that water is available with the fountain's sparkles and splashes.

2. Add Ice to Bird Baths

Keep birds cool in summer by filling bird baths with cool water and adding a chunk of ice to each one. Freezing water in a plastic dish overnight and adding a large block to the bird bath early in the day is a great option for how to keep birds cool in summer. As the ice melts it will keep the bath full and the water cooler. This will also help inhibit algae growth to keep the bath cleaner, and will minimize insects that may breed in the water.

3. Provide Good Quality Food

Birds won't have to work as hard to find every meal if feeders provide reliable, nutritious offerings that satisfy them. The best summer bird foods include Kaytee fruit and nut seed blends, Kaytee mealworms, and Kaytee black oil sunflower seeds. Seed cakes are another great choice, as are peanuts and peanut hearts that woodpeckers, nuthatches, jays, and chickadees will love. Choosing larger bird feeders for summer will also help ensure birds always have access to convenient meals.

4. Move Bird Feeders to Shade

Positioning feeders in shady spots is an easy, simple step for keeping birds cool in summer as they eat. Shade will also keep the seed cooler, slowing any spoilage, and the shady cover will help block some rain that would dampen seed and could cause mold or mildew. Hang feeders under mature trees or deep awnings for the best shade and coolest feeding spots.

5. Minimize Pruning

Because birds will take advantage of shady spots to keep cool in summer, resist the urge to prune trees and shrubs more than absolutely necessary. More natural shade will not only help birds stay cool, but thicker, unpruned plants will provide more secure nesting areas for summer birds as well as better shelter from thunderstorms or prowling predators.

6. Add Extra Vents to Bird Houses

Every bird house should have good air circulation to help keep brooding birds and
young nestlings cool. Add extra vent holes to the house to be sure the circulation is adequate on hot summer days, and check that the holes have not become blocked with nesting material or debris. Positioning vent holes under house eaves will ensure no rain can get in to swamp the nest.

7. Provide a Quiet Midday Refuge

Temperatures are hottest in the middle of the day and late afternoon, and it can be difficult to help keep birds cool when the sun is blazing. Keeping the yard quiet and free of pets, children, and disruptive activities like lawn mowing or other chores at that time will provide birds with a peaceful, stress-free sanctuary just when they need to cool off the most. The more strategies backyard birders use for how to keep birds cool in summer, the more welcoming their yard will be for all summer species, from tanagers and thrushes to hummingbirds, orioles, buntings, warblers, and more. By creating a better summer sanctuary, both birds and birders will enjoy the season while they stay calm, comfortable, and cool even on the hottest days.

How else do you keep birds cool in Summer? Share your tips with us on social media and tag Kaytee on Facebook to help everyone give birds a break on hot summer days!