What is a good, cheap water pump to make a battery-powered fountain for birds outdoors?

Question

People who know birds generally know that they love the sound of running water - it attracts them and makes them sing. I'd like to build a simple, pole-mounted bird-bath / water fountain for my birds outdoors. I'm trying to locate a pump for the water - preferably solar powered. Inexpensive, reliable, no issues with priming, enough of a flow to make a little sound.

1. What kind of pump is best?

2. What's a good vendor for this pump?

3. Is it realistic to power it with solar? Source / type of solar celll?

Answer 1

Go to Home Depot or any other hardware store or lumber company and they will point you in the right direction  that sells fountains.

Answer 2

I would like into the eheim pumps. They work great for pond use, and I heard about them as high quality pumps for water cooling computers.

Solar power for something of this scale is just not practical. You could probably do it. If you really want solar, make sure you correctly match the size and power type (AC/DC) to the pump. I think a pump of the scale you want utilizes about 20 watts of power.

Answer 3

Solar pumps work well for this sort of application if you're not imagining something like the fountains of Trevi. <g>

Sunjet and AquaSolar seem to be the brands I see most commonly around here in ponds.