Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Outdoors

How to Turn Your Backyard Into a Wildlife-Friendly Sanctuary

Mike Richard
By
backyard wildlife sanctuary bird feeder
Joe Cox

For most of us, relaxing in the backyard only requires a couple of lounge chairs, a grill, and your best cooler full of lawnmower beers. However, abundant wildlife can add a whole new experience of fulfillment and practicality to your outdoor space. Whether you live in a fifth-story apartment with a fire escape “balcony” or on a 10-acre ranch, these tips can help level up your backyard, deck, or patio into a wildlife-friendly oasis.

Feed the Birds

One of the best methods to bolster the wildlife population in your backyard is to feed the birds. Setting up even one bird feeder with a broad-use seed that wins over a variety of species is a good start. If you have the room, multiple feeders (including hummingbird feeders) with a range of seeds and feed are even better. Large bags of seeds are inexpensive and readily available at most pet shops and farm supply stores.

backyard wildlife sanctuary bird feeder
Joe Cox

Keep the Birds Clean, Too

Birdbaths might remind you of nana’s house. They are, however, an essential part of building a wildlife-friendly backyard sanctuary. Birds love and need natural spots for drinking and bathing. Adding a handful of pebbles or rocks to the bottom also infuses the water with essential minerals and encourages butterflies to gather as well. Be sure to hose out the bath every few days to stave off mold and bacteria buildup.

Recommended Videos

Don’t Love Your Lawn to Death

Keeping your lawn well maintained is important, but over-manicuring and adding too many fertilizers can discourage wildlife. Mowing and trimming your grass like a golf course might keep your neighbors happy. For wildlife, however, variety plays a huge role. Tidying up the grass near the center provides a place for birds and small mammals like foxes and badgers to forage. Consider leaving the edges longer to give invertebrates a place to shelter and hide. Replacing hard-to-maintain greenery with native trees, shrubs, and flowers is a great way to provide natural variety to your backyard. It also minimizes maintenance and attracts more wildlife.

backyard wildlife sanctuary squirrel
Tj Holowaychuk

Let the Trees Be

It’s tempting to want to tidy up your yard of dead or dying trees. If they’re not posing a danger, however, consider letting them be. All trees — even dead ones — can serve as new nesting places for birds. Tree hollows also provide safe spaces for ground animals to burrow, hide, and escape from predators.

Related

Put Out the Bat-Signal

Thanks mostly to horror movies, bats have suffered a serious social stigma. In reality, they’re mostly harmless to humans. What’s more, they’re excellent natural exterminators. Working mainly at night, they can rid your backyard of massive amounts of insects, especially mosquitoes and agricultural pests. Small wooden bat houses are cheap, easy to install, and readily available on Amazon.

Welcome New Toad Tenants

Like bats, toads also make great garden tenants. They prey on insects, snails, and slugs — up to 10,000 in a single season. Relying on toads to maintain your backyard pest population minimizes the need for artificial pesticides and other nasty chemicals. Attract more toads by installing toad houses — basically any small, damp, enclosed space. These can be as simple as a rock pile covered with fallen leaves. An old, chipped planter or clay pot works great too. Flip it over, prop it up on a stone or brick, and leave it in an out-of-the-way area of your backyard. Just be sure any chips are wide enough for your new toad residents to use as a door.

backyard wildlife sanctuary flowers
MChe Lee

Build a Pond

For most of us, building a private pond is a luxury. If you have space and ability, however, a pond can be a great asset to your backyard ecosystem. It provides diversity and helps balance the variety and types of species likely to gather in your outdoor space.

Corral Your Cats

Cats can wreak havoc on your backyard sanctuary. Most house cats are adept hunters, which means they’re likely to scare off or eat birds, frogs, and small mammals. If at all possible, keep your house cats inside. It’s better for your backyard and better for your feline’s overall health, too.

Editors' Recommendations

Mike Richard
Mike Richard
Contributor
Mike Richard has traveled the world since 2008. He's kayaked in Antarctica, tracked endangered African wild dogs in South…
Ditch the GPS: How to navigate using a map and compass
Don't worry, it's really not that difficult to find your way or location the old-school way
Fingers holding a map and compass in the outdoors

GPS devices and GPS apps for your phone and even navigation watches with GPX files are nearly foolproof today. But what about when you run out of battery or your waterproof device isn't as waterproof as you had hoped? Even worse, what if you spend your entire trip with your head buried in your GPS without taking the time to get to know your surroundings?

Here at The Manual, our number-one backpacking essential for every outdoor adventure is the humble map and compass. It's no use just buying these items and stuffing them into your backpack. First, you need to learn how to read a topographic map and know what all the twisting bits do and what the numbers mean on your compass. It can all look quite confusing, so we're going to demystify the art of how to navigate using a map and compass and let you go old school, ditch the GPS, and get to know your surroundings intimately.
Know the parts of the compass

Read more
A beginner’s guide on how to read a topographic map
Learn how to read and navigate with a topographical map from an expert
Reading a topographic map

Before you’ve packed your bags and before you’ve gassed up the wagon, there’s the little issue of figuring out where you’re actually going to go and -- more importantly, if you're going to be outdoors -- the type of terrain that's there.

One of the best ways to do that is to peruse a map of the region that goes a little further than just showing you a layout of the park. A topographic map introduces you to the peaks and valleys and gives you an understanding of how difficult the terrain might be in the area where you’re headed. It was originally developed as a way to depict counties and cities before the U.S. military used it in World War I.
Where to begin

Read more
These are the essential outdoor knots every outdoorsman should know
A well-versed arsenal of knots is a must-have for any outdoorsman
A reef knot is tied against a tree

There's almost no end to what you can achieve armed with a length of rope and an arsenal of outdoor knots to tie it together. If heading into the backcountry, you should always be prepared for survival. While part of that is carrying the right gear, you must know how to use it effectively. You wouldn't take your woodcutting axe without giving it a few practice swings at home, so why would you expect to tie the right knot without practice?

There is an adage among those who don't know what to do with rope: if you can't tie knots, tie lots. If you don't know what you're doing, keep tying until your rope feels secure. It works, sometimes. But in a significant way, these people are missing out. Knots, like backcountry navigation skills or making a fire, are part of being an outdoorsman. Outdoor knots come in different shapes and perform various tasks; some are quick, some secure, and others are designed to be untied quickly. These eight are the essential outdoor knots to learn first, so grab a rope and upskill your outdoor self.
Bowline knot

Read more