Barn owl habitat and owl nesting habits Owls and Bats add to our security and self reliance, read here to learn how

Five years ago my neighbor came across a fledgling Barn Owl, a very small female, very healthy it fell out of a nest and started walking somewhere. He had a huge wire cage and placed the little guy in it and nursed it to full size and released it. It flew to the eave under his house and stayed there, so he did what every blue blooded american boy would do, he built a nesting box. The owl did occupy the box and went on to have two broods of young ones over the next two years, the barn owl habitat needed to be revisited however. I volunteered to building an owl box, I had been thinking about building a few for some time along with wood duck boxes and bat habitats. If you are interested click here for wood duck nesting box plans.

When young the barn owls spend a lot of time looking out the access hole
in their box, sometime loudly!

  Barn owls hunt at night, they are nocturnal, the owl occupying our nesting box flies past my sliding glass door every night at 8-8:30 pm during the winter and an hour later during summer. This one at least is a creature of habit. Owls roost during the day in secluded spots that are hidden, under the eaves of houses, in hollowed out holes in trees, high in barn rafters and of course in their nest. They don't hoot like other owls they have a raspy, slightly eerie call, in fact almost a screech and almost a scream. When the little ones get hungry they also get noisy hollering out the hole of the owl box. They are silent, strong, flyers hunting over open fields and meadows spreading their large graceful wings silently. The barn owl wingspan is an impressive 39 1/2"-49 1/4" (100-125 cm), with a body length of 12 1/2"-15 3/4" (32-40 cm) and weighing in at 14-25 ounces, a large bird but light weight.
 

Adult doing what they do, just hanging out.

They swallow their food whole, skin, bones all of it down the old hatch, but they do not pass all of it, a couple of times a day (normally 2, sometimes more) they will cough out a ball of tightly wound remains which land on the ground. Researchers inspect these "pellets" to learn more about the owl nesting habits. There are 46 different species of barn owls world wide, the North American species is larger than twice the size of the smallest species, residing in the Galapagos Islands. They have excellent vision which aids them in hunting from dusk until morning light, and has the best hearing of any animal ever tested. With such great hearing they are able to capture small rodents and field mice hidden by snow or ground cover. Because squirrels and chipmunks are day time creatures owls normally do not feed on them. I observed the owl in our nesting box perching on a limb 10 feet from the entrance of the nest staring down a red squirrel. The squirrels live upstairs of the owls, they have 5-6 nest normally, they have been nesting there for years. It's a pecan tree, crows love that tree as well, I wrote a blog about the crows earlier this year about how they were flying around with pecans in their beaks. Everyone except the owls eat the pecans, I use the leaves for worm bedding and I make walking canes with the limbs. Back to the story, the owl stared at the squirrel and the squirrel stared back for about 5 minutes. You know how squirrels will bob their heads, chatter and flip their tails? Well that's what this guy was doing, tormenting the owl like they do a dog. I suspect the only reason the owl did not pounce on the the little wise acre is due to a large branch looming over the owls head, finally the red squirrel abandoned his little bit of "hot dogging".  The owls live to a ripe old age of 15 1/2 years at the most, 13 years being about the average age, squirrels don't seem to last as long. Click here to read all about barn owls.
  Barn owl habitats extend in all 48 lower Untied States into Canada in the south. Deserts, marshes, wheat fields, forest, wooded areas as well as in urban and city's. They are very versatile, however they are in declining numbers in some habitats, they live in hollowed out tree trunks, tunnels, stadiums, and live as high as 13,000 feet in the Andes. They roost in their nest year round, they sometimes have numerous nest with young owls at varying ages. They use the same nest year after year, but often different owls take up residence. Barn Owls mate for life, yes another animal that does that, I'm going to write a blog on that because it is so impressive and romantically sad sometimes. The male courts the female by hovering in front of the female for a few seconds, referred to as a "moth flight", he will display the nest by calling inside and flying in and out of it. After they become a pair the male will bring prey to her, much more than she can consume about a month prior to her laying eggs. Maybe it's a showing of plentiful food to encourage more eggs, the eggs are not large grade A, they measure up to 1 3/4" long. They protect the area around the barn owl habitat, but they are not territorial in the open fields, more than one pair normally hunts the same locations. Click here to learn more about Barn Owl habitat and barn owl nest box placement.

Typical Barn Owl habitat, fairly easy to build
and very rewarding to help out. 

  Barn Owls were affected when DDT was used in agriculture and rodent poisons affected them due to small mammals being their source of food. Cars kill and injure a number of them due to the fact they fly low over the fields while hunting, hedge rows have been found to help in saving some of them from that fate. Building an owl box is not real difficult, plans are available here, I made mine from marine plywood I had left over from a project (I forget what that one was). I try to use "reclaimed" material in what ever I build, the next boxes I build will be made from an old (30 years) redwood fence, it makes good barn owl habitat,s. Barn owl nest box placement must be as close to their natural habitat as possible, protected in a hidden spot is the most important thing to remember. Great Horned Owls are the Barn Owls natural wild predator, raccoons and snakes are lesser predators but they are still an extreme danger to them. I found a dead young owl at the base of a power pole in my yard, we had a wind storm during the night. The young one appeared to get caught in the wind somehow and was blown about 75 yards away from the nesting box. I was on a construction site building an electric generating plant and a worker found a dead Barn Owl, well the job was shut down and the death was investigated. After 2 weeks it was found to have passed naturally, and we went back to work. At another site we were shut down due to an owl that was nesting at the top of the structure near the smoke stack, it was nesting, we were allowed to work after a few days of consideration. It was determined we could work but not within a distance of the nest, unfortunately the bird most likely nests there every year, it will be OK because no one generally climbs that high during operations.
  The owls are important in our quest to be as self reliant as we can be, without them we could be overwhelmed by small rodents which in turn would attract larger predators. In a survival situation we don't need rodents climbing all over our food and equipment which in turn would invite disease. A healthy barn owl habitat is instrumental to our health and well being, when coupled with a bat habitat the pest population is manageable. Owls take care of the rodents and small animals the bats take care of the mosquito's. (thousands a night) The red squirrels, well they shall remain my dog's nemesis, which is entertaining as all get out.

This is a "Bat house", made correctly they can blend in with
the siding if you use a spare piece and the same paint.
They will cut down on the mosquito population, they eat thousands
each every night. Bats are our friends. 

  Thanks for reading my blog, I hope you learned something or found me in a mistake, please comment or ask a question.

jacquesandkate  emergencykitsplus.com