Turn A Dollar Tree Margarita Glass Into A Cute Bird Waterer

Flapping wings is thirsty business, and just like it is for other animals, water is even more important for a bird's survival than food. So, providing drinking water is a thoughtful way to support our feathered friends when they visit. Luckily, you don't have to spend a lot of money on a specially made bird waterer when you can tuck a margarita glass into a potted plant. At $1.50 apiece, Dollar Tree's Yucatan Margarita Glasses are adorable, budget-friendly additions to pots, hanging baskets, raised beds, or the ground itself. As long as you keep an eye out for new chips and situate them away from high-traffic areas, the glasses offer an appealing way to add instant delight to your yard or patio habitat.

A few Dollar Tree customers have shared that these glasses are durable and heavy — an advantage that helps them stay upright in the soil. However, give it a bit more stability by burying the foot and about 1 inch of the stem into the soil. Then either gently tamp the soil down around the stem or place a few rocks on top of it. Also, prevent damage to the glass and, more importantly, danger to birds by bringing the glasses inside in freezing weather. Even with the glasses' wide mouths, ice forming in the water can cause them to break.

The low price and the thick, durable glass might be the first two traits that lure you into setting up these drinking outposts for your birds, but there are other advantages to trying this simple trick. Surrounded by flowers and greenery, and perfectly transparent, margarita glasses are unobtrusive enough to keep the attention on your plants. Their wide mouths and shallow cups provide lots of surface area for drinking, and you can slide them out of their roosts easily for weekly cleanings. But despite their kitchen-y origins, don't use dish soap to clean the glasses. The Audubon Society warns that conventional soaps and detergents can damage the essential oils on birds' feathers. Instead, use a vinegar cleaning solution of one part white vinegar to nine parts water.

Pollinator insects can also take advantage of this water supply. To customize this water station for your local bees and other helpful bugs, place a few rocks in the glass. Ones that rise a bit above the water level give insects a place to perch while drinking, and this addition shouldn't make the container any less appealing to birds, either. While you're at Dollar Tree, you can pick up some Clear Glass Accent Gems to use instead of rocks. As inexpensive and unobtrusive as the margarita glasses, placed in a pile in the center of the glass, they will give bugs and smaller birds a place to land safely while they drink.