Healthy ways to attract wildlife

Most landowners interested in management like the idea of having wildlife around their homes. Backyard wildlife usually includes small mammals, as well as a great many birds. Artificially feeding large mammals, such as deer, elk, bear, coyotes or raccoons, is strongly discouraged. Invariably, decisions to feed these animals will result in death to the wildlife and heartache to the well-intentioned homeowner.

Before undertaking practices to attract wildlife to your backyard, you must understand the implications that go along with this decision.

Creating artificial food sources may cause some animals to become dependent. If you need to be away for any reason during the winter, the animals that have become dependent on your food source may go hungry. Unnatural conflicts between the animals may occur when a central food source exists. In the wild, food is usually well distributed and conflicts are less likely. Attracting animals to an area may increase their vulnerability to predators. Food you provide may cause delays in migration, which is sometimes triggered by reductions in food. Feed sites may increase exposure to density-dependent diseases. Artificial feeding may cause the animals to become less wary, which could be fatal when the animal moves to other locations.

On the other hands, there are some benefits to attracting wildlife to your backyard. Your contribution may increase the number of individuals the area can support. By increasing the diversity of foods found on your land, you may help support different species than the area supports naturally. The excellent wildlife viewing opportunities are satisfying and educational for you and your visitors.

To attract wildlife to your backyard, these three wildlife components must be available: Food, Water, and Cover.

Food: Use a diverse selection pf plant materials to provide food and shelter for birds and small mammals. Plant many fruit or seed bearing plants. Select plants that provide a combination of visual attractiveness, food and shelter from summer sun and winter weather.

Supplemental Food: Put bird feeders where you can see them from the house. Keep the feeders stocked, especially during winter. Shrubs should be close so birds can escape predators. Juncos, sparrows, chickadees, finches, and blackbirds use seed feeders. Put wedges of oranges, apples and bananas in fruit feeders for bluebirds, towhees, woodpeckers and robins. Nectar feeders are primarily for hummingbirds. Suet will be used by woodpeckers and chickadees.

Water: Use birdbaths, decorative ponds or natural sources to supply water. Dripping water is especially attractive to birds and can be supplied by rigging a garden hose or hanging a milk jug with a hole in the bottom.

Shelter: You can provide shelter for the birds and small mammals in a variety of ways. Pile up broken branches, prunings and other plant materials for wrens, towhees and sparrows. Thorny or densely branched trees and shrubs also provide excellent shelter. Consider planting species like shrub roses, blackberries and caragana. A variety of nest boxes are available to attract birds. Entrance holes should be less than 1.75 inches in size to keep starlings out of the boxes.

For more information on plant species that attract wildlife, contact the MSU Lake County Extension office at lake1@montana.edu.

– Jack Stivers is the Lake County Extension Office Agent for Montana State University