Bird Path is a public artwork fountain for birds.

An elevated translucent dish, sourced with continuously circulating fresh water, provides a place for city birds to drink, bathe and play. Colour and reflectivity dance on the ground below, inviting a connection between humans and the birds above. A central stone column resembles the texture of a banksia cone or a waratah when looking up. Names of local native birds, in english and indigenous language, are inscribed in stone paving.

Public water infrastructure in Australia has evolved, from the first European settlement established along Sydney’s Tank Stream, to the celebration of the centenary and bicentenary in the creation of dramatic public fountains. The vast majority of this infrastructure has been in the service of humans. The climate and biodiversity crisis has required a shift in priority for how we use water, from spectacles for humans, to essential services for nonhuman creatures with whom we share the planet.

Working with ornithologists and other bird experts has revealed that bird’s are attracted to bright orange and red colours, that they require a variety of water depths and access points, and prefer non chemically treated fresh water unlike that found in public water features.

Bird Path builds on Jennifer Turpin /Turpin Crawford Studio’s extensive expertise of producing public art, using water as a dynamic feature of sculptural form and aeration and flow. Matthew Darmour-Paul of Feral Partnerships brings knowledge into the genealogy of human and more-than-human architecture.