You can enjoy wildlife in your own yard if you create a good habitat, or home, for birds and other wildlife. Such a habitat depends on three important things: FOOD, SHELTER, and PROTECTION. By improving any or all of these things, you can enhance opportunities to view wildlife and help conserve the species.

Backyards with mixtures of trees, shrubs, seed-bearing flowers, and grasses are inviting to wildlife.

The following trees are good food sources: oaks, dogwoods, white pine, holly, junipers, red cedar, hawthorne, crabapple, and beech.

Artificial nesting and feeding structures for birds and mammals can provide instant benefits for wildlife. There are hundreds of clever and intriguing designs for wildlife structures which are effective and beautiful additions to any backyard.

Plants can offer protection as well as food for wildlife. When designing a landscape include: plants of varying heights, locations for perching and roosting, cover in the winter, and thickets of thorny plants.