Providing cover close to a food source will decrease the chance of predation as wildlife move to feed. To choose your cover arrangement, determine which wildlife species can benefit or which species you would like to view on your property. A typical back yard is limited in size and will not be big enough to provide adequate nesting space for grassland birds such as the sharptail grouse, waterfowl species like the Canada goose, or enough isolation for raising a large mammal like the white-tailed deer. Many larger species, however, can be lured to your yard given larger habitats are found in the area. The key to providing cover for wildlife is to avoid uniformity.
Edge is defined as providing the largest variety of habitat components within a given area.
For example, a yard filled with large trees, medium trees, shrubs, vines, grasses and wildflowers will attract a much more diverse number of wildlife species than will a yard covered entirely with a single component. Wildlife will benefit and move about more freely if travel lanes are provided between plots of cover. Typical urban backyards can be landscaped with trees and shrubs to provide areas for songbirds to nest including species like chipping sparrows, robins, orioles, vireos, finches, bluejays and small mammals like cottontail rabbits, tree squirrels, ground squirrels and weasels. All of these species will respond positively to a yard planted with a variety of cover types. Cover is most often thought of as vegetation but can also include structures like brush and rock piles or man-made nesting structures like those built for wood ducks or bluebirds.