Set up a sunflower-filled pit stop for migratory birds this fall.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Making life easier for birds is a win-win. Bird-watching boosts your mental outlook, decreases stress, improves work performance, and even helps improve kids' attention spans. On the flip side, turning your yard into a four-star dining experience for our feathered friends helps alleviate some of the hardships they're enduring—things largely caused by people in the first place, such as habitat loss and climate change.

Fall is the ideal time to start taking an interest in feeding the birds for a few reasons:

• Migratory marathoners are on the move. Migratory birds are embarking on mega-missions, with some flying thousands of miles to Africa or South America from the U.S. But "human development continues to take the place of many of migratory birds’ usual 'rest stops,'" explains Deborah Martin, author of the new book Secrets of Backyard Bird-Feeding Success (Rodale, 2011). "When places that migrating birds are hardwired to visit for food, water, and shelter disappear, finding alternative places along their route is not as simple as driving to the next exit on the turnpike." A welcoming backyard or, even better, a welcoming neighborhood of yards that offer water, trees for roosting, and well-stocked feeders, can be very helpful to birds that need to "refuel" during their long flights, Martin adds.

• You can snag a rare seasonal delight. Turning your backyard into a bird feeder this time of year could yield months of magnificent bird-watching. Many colorful songbirds are considered short-distance migrants, meaning they breed and nest in Northern Canada, but might only fly south to New England or the Great Lakes for the winter months. If you attract them to your yard now, they may set up shop in binocular view until spring, increasing your backyard bird-viewing pleasure.

• Bird-feeding can shoo away winter blues. Maintaining feeders during the winter months when many birds are supplementing their natural foods with seeds and suet means going outside to tend those feeders every day or two. "Getting outside for just a few minutes on a winter day is a great mood-booster," says Martin. "It clears the head and stimulates the circulation, and even lets you appreciate being able to return to the warmth of your home once your feeder-filling tasks are completed."

Now that you know the benefits of bird-feeding, here are some secrets for success:

#1: Be a lazy gardener. When choosing a feeder location, Martin suggests picking a spot where you can put a sunflower seed feeder in a location visible from your window. "That way, you can get to it throughout the winter to keep it filled," she says. Add a suet feeder, too, to attract woodpeckers and nuthatches.

Also very important: Avoid perennial garden cleanup, and leave stems of coneflowers, asters, eupatoriums, and other tall plants. You'll provide perches, seeds, and overwintering insect treats for all sorts of birds.