Despite a bit of precipitation this week, it's been awfully dry. Just imagine if you couldn't turn on a faucet for your drinking water and had to spend precious time and energy everyday looking for a drink just to survive. Well, that's the dilemma birds and all animals find themselves in — especially now, in the middle of this long dry spell.

Birds need water every day. The more water you provide, the more birds you'll attract.

Here are a few simple tips to help your birds and to increase the bird activity at your birdbath.

• Adding a birdbath will double the variety of birds in your backyard. Make the water move and double it again. Add a bubbler to your bath.
• Keep your bath full and fresh.
• Add more baths — beautiful or simple will do. A plastic dish or upside-down garbage can lid placed on the ground makes a fine birdbath. Place a rock in the middle to keep the dish from blowing away.
• Shallow is best, so keep the water level at no more than two inches deep. Small songbirds are afraid of deep water. If you already have a "too deep" bath, add a large piece of flagstone to raise the floor.
• Place your birdbath where you can see it.
• High-hanging birdbaths are safest from cats.

Spring migration is in full swing. It's the best time of year to see the widest variety of birds at your bath and at your feeders.

Migrants are arriving everyday and they are exhausted, hungry and thirsty. Make your yard an oasis for your favorite bird.

Some birds to be looking for in your yard

• Green-tailed Towhees. We’ve had several customers report seeing these ground feeding birds in the Santa Fe area in the last few days. Look for their reddish cap and greenish tail.
• Hummingbirds. Black-chinned and Broad-tailed are arriving to nest. Get your hummingbird feeder out and keep the nectar fresh.
• Cassin’s finch. Lots of you have reported seeing this finch on the ground beneath your feeders.
• Chipping sparrows. Several of you have seen small flocks of this red-capped sparrow feeding on seeds on the ground.
• White-crowned sparrow. Many of these sparrows in town now. It’s easy to spot their black-and-white head stripes. They often shuffle back and forth on the ground trying to kick up some seed.
• Orioles, also known as “the forgotten nectar drinker.” Hang a nectar feeder built big enough for them. Start looking for the yellow and black Scott’s oriole and the black and orange Bullock’s oriole.
• Lesser goldfinches. These birds are making their return to the Santa Fe area. Hang a mesh thistle feeder with fresh thistle to bring them up close. The thistle eating pine siskin is also hanging around.
• Evening grosbeaks. Many of you are still seeing flocks of these birds at your sunflower feeders. We’ve had a few reports of the black and orange black-headed Grosbeak returning for the nesting season.
• Western tanagers. These yellow and red birds should be coming through in larger numbers any day now. Watch for this bird at your suet feeder, seed cylinder and birdbath.

Anne Schmauss is the co-owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Santa Fe. She is also the author, with her sisters, of the book For the Birds: A Month by Month Guide to Attracting Birds to Your Backyard. Her articles also appear in Birds and Blooms magazine.