As leaves turn from green to red, orange and gold, you’re probably gearing up for cooler nights, costumes and handing out free candy.

Birds, though, are getting ready for something more daunting: migration.

“When you’re dealing with migratory birds, they’ve been flying all night and expending huge amounts of energy,” says Scott Weidensaul, naturalist and author of Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding.  “Your back yard can really be a lifesaver for them.”

Whether you have acres of land or a small apartment patio, you can help our fine feathered friends by giving them a spot to rest, bathe and eat on their way to their southern destinations — and spruce up your outdoor space at the same time.

Here’s what you can add, and how:

Food: Seeds and more

The easiest thing you can do to welcome back yard birds is stick a feeder on your window, says Sally Roth, author of Bird by Bird Gardening: The Ultimate Guide to Bringing in Your Favorite Birds — Year After Year. “I’ve seen them as high as the eighth floor of a building, but second story, third story, and you should have no problem,” she says. Roth recommends buying waste-free birdseed, which you can pick up at your local home or hardware store, so birds are not dropping sunflower seeds all over your neighbors.

Putting the feeder on the window, using suction cups, will also save birds from a common death knell: flying into windows.

“The reason they smack into windows is because they look into the reflection,” says Roth. “When they see the feeder, they focus on the feeder and slow down.”

In addition to seed feeders, you can provide meal worms or suet. Just make sure you get the right feeder for the food.

You can also plant berry-producing shrubs in your yard — flowering dogwood, holly and barberry are good selections — or add a potted plant, like a geranium, to your porch. Even if birds don’t eat seeds produced by a plant, they can eat the insects that plants attract.

Make sure the environment you’re presenting to birds is non-toxic, too. “Chemicals that may or may not be dangerous to us can be dangerous to them,” says Weidensaul.

If you want to attract a specific type of bird, check out the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It will show you which food attracts which birds.

Water: Consider a birdbath

The obvious thing you can do to give birds a place to splash and drink is add a birdbath, but you have to maintain it since birds aren’t exactly potty-trained.

“Birds are not housebroken, so they do their thing anywhere and everywhere,” says Vinnie Drzewucki, bird expert at Hicks Nursery in Westbury, Long Island, N.Y., and author of Gardening in Deer Country. He recommends changing the water daily and scrubbing the birdbath with detergent weekly. You don’t have to go with the traditional pedestal birdbath, either. “It doesn’t have to be a fancy birdbath, just a shallow plastic tray of water,” he adds.

Have a pond already? Create a platform in the pond with bricks to give birds a place to touch down and grab a drink — they’ll only need an inch or two of water to take a break, bathe and rehydrate.

Cover: Just add landscaping

Birds need a place to rest and hide, whether from bad weather or predators. “Almost anything you do to improve your landscape as plants go is going to be attractive in one way or another to birds in general,” says Drzewucki.

Keep anything you add up high to shield birds from a major predator: cats. “A minimum of a billion birds are killed by free-running cats a year in the U.S.,” says Weidensaul. It’s largely a preventable problem, too. If you have a cat, keep it in indoors. Roth goes so far as to say that if you or your neighbors have an outdoor cat, “don’t feed birds. You’re only inviting birds to their deaths.”

One way to keep cover high is, if you have space, to plant a tree. Trees like evergreens, spruces, pine and fir trees, if native to your area, provide heavy cover year round. If you don’t plant trees, the simple birdhouse works, too. Birds will use it for nesting in the spring and shelter in colder months. Like with birdbaths, make sure you clean the birdhouses — but you only need to do that after nesting season.

Whatever you do, even if it’s adding a small plant to your porch, will help.

“You’re knitting together broken ecological connections in your back yard,” says Weidensaul. “Not just for birds but for many other species. You’re making life easier for yourself as a gardener but you’re also inviting nature back into your back yard.”