A Backyard Wildlife Habitat® site is a mini-ecosystem with multiple food chains. You should supply as much food as possible through native vegetation in order to meet the year-round needs of a variety of species. Trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, succulents, and even grasses produce foods such as acorns and other nuts, berries, fruits, and seeds. Buds, catkins, foliage, twigs, sap, nectar, and pollen are all other important wildlife food produced by plants.

Like food, every living thing needs clean water, for drinking, bathing, and sometimes breathing! Nature provides water to wildlife in a multitude of ways that can be replicated in your habitat.

How you provide water will depend upon how much space you have and how much money you want to spend. Water can be provided in something as simple as a shallow dish, like the drainage pan of a flower pot or the classic bird bath.

Wildlife needs protective cover just as people need the shelter of a house - both as protection from predators as well as extreme weather. Plants again play an important role in creating this component of habitat. The same plants that provide food will do double-duty as cover. Native evergreens can provide excellent cover throughout the year. Densely branched shrubbery can provide cover even if the plants are not evergreens; thorns add another elements of protection.

Places to raise young are needed to make your Wildlife Habitat area complete. These are places where wildlife can engage in their courtship behaviors and where they can safely nurture and raise their young. Without this unique type of cover, wildlife may pass through your habitat area to utilize food, water, and cover resources you've provided, but will not be able to take up a truly permanent residence in all stages of their life cycles.