Is your birdbath too deep?

This is a very wet black-capped chickadee that just escaped drowning.

We have a ceramic birdbath with a bubbler in the center surrounded by a deep trough, a very deep trough, like four inches. The edge of the bath is slippery ceramic. This is bad design.

We didn't recognize the problem until the bird tried to bathe following a heavy rain that loaded the trough. The chickadee perched on the slippery edge and slid in. There was no way out, certainly not flight with wings under water.

We noticed faint motion in the water. A closer look revealed a chickadee up to its bill in water, barely able to gasp another breath.

Out of the water and on a towel the bird sat with bill open and eyes closed. Eventually it began to shiver, a good sign because that generates body heat. Now and then the bird would tuck its head under its wing. I think it was tired enough to nap.

We dried it gently with a small hair dryer (low speed) for about 15 minutes. It didn't try to groom, although its feathers were a mess. It shook once, then flew into a nearby tree.

We've had three chickadees as regular visitors to our feeders. A couple of hours after the bird flew there were three chickadees again.