How can I discourage the neighborhood cats from killing the birds that come to my bird bath?

our beautiful wild birds are in decline.....cats always were exterminators of wild birds, their owners aware as cats leave the dead birds at the door of their owners...while owners believe their cat has a right to prowl outdoors and kill birds...

for people refusing to lure wild birds to their deaths from predators as the cat, the answer is to REMOVE the attraction, bird bath or feeder, otherwise capture the cat and call the shelter.

birds for many years were able to compensate for the cat kills, able to continue due to producing 3 or 4 eggs per nest..... but this has dramatically changed,,,,,, over the past forty years or more the hawk/falcon population has increased mightily.....in the early 1900's numbers of hawks, predatory birds went into decline, this was due to the insecticide ddt,.... the ddt did not kill the hawk but caused the hawks eggs to become fragile, and easily fracture ( hawks do not consume seeds or crops affected with ddt, but they kill and EAT the birds who eat seeds and crops....this was birth control affecting ONLY the predators.... the rest of wild birds thrived mightily (as the predator birds declined in numbers)

today however wild birds are becoming scarce due to the increasing numbers of hawks/falcons/owls in parkland, suburbs and cities, add to this people using bird feeders, bird baths attracting wild birds to their deaths via predators, hawks, cats and others,

Maybe you could get sprinklers and aim them all around the bird bath this would stop the cats if they arent a fan of water.

I have a bird feeder and 2 cats..

If you know who owns the cats, talk with them about keeping the cats inside or in their yard. If you don't know, then try trapping the cats and taking them to a shelter.

You put out a deterrent - and your other choice is to trap the cat. YOU need to take the cat to AC once trapped, and letting it out does not one any good. The cat can't spend all night in a trap - don't punish the cat for the ignorant owners. Tell the owners to keep their cats out of your yard. Once they pay an impound fee to get their cats back they may change their lazy ways and keep the cats either in a secure enclosure or indoors. Their right to a free roaming cat ends when they become a nuisance in your backyard.

get rid of bird bath

You can't, the law is that cat can roam as they wish, you may have to take the bath away to save the birds.

Trap the cats and haul them off to the local shelter

Buy one of these https://amzn.to/2WiTOoc I put mine back out in my backyard after a neighbour moved in with a free roaming cat that killed a beautiful Steller's Jay right by my bird feeder :(

Is it a lot of cats or just one or two? If just a couple trap them and take them to your local no-kill and say it keeps coming to your home to eat. The owner will have to come claim it usually within 7 days and then it will put up for adoption.

In most areas cats are "allowed" to roam but they can't pose a nuisance to others. Coming into YOUR yard and hunting birds is most certainly a nuisance. I hate selfish cat owners.

you could try spraying Feliway around the birdbath

Set cat food out for them.