Let’s Help A Pair Of Barn Owls With A Nest Box

Lately, my mind has been on owls, and rightfully so, as they are an amazing ‘order’ of birds; ‘Strigiformes’, to be more precise, for those wanting to know the biological order classification relating to just owls.

And if I can brag just a little bit here, it’s not unheard of that my backyard trees play host to an occasional roosting barn owl, or even more commonly, a great horned owl or two, off and on, throughout the year.

As such, I’m always thinking about and looking for owls in my yard, and on my morning walk today a question popped into my head about where the name “barn owl” actually came from.

Naturally, I can only make a general assumption here, but it does stand to reason that it’s in reference to their nesting behavior that frequently utilizes old barns found on many family farms across the country.

Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?

One such family farm that I personally know of has a pair of barn owls roosting in an old, concrete grain silo, and have been for years, from what I’ve been told.

Unfortunately, the silo is without any type of nesting structure for the owls to propagate and raise their young, and with your help, I want to change that and give this pair of barn owls a place to nest and raise a clutch of owlets each year.

Barn owls are unique in their nesting habits and are one of those species of birds that look for cavities to build a nest, such as hollow trees, caves, cliff ledges, and many types of human structure, including barns, raftors in sheds, and old grain silos, for example, anything really that offers a crevice where a simple nest made of shredded owl pellets can be built.

Because barn owls take to man-made structures very well, nesting boxes are very successful in helping give these unique owls more suitable locations to nest in areas where hollow trees and other natural locations are in short supply, like it is in this particular locale.

Simply put, the plan is to build and install a nesting box somewhere in the top of this old grain silo to give its resident pair of barn owls a place to nest each year.

Being a birdwatcher since I was a kid, I am a believer the world needs more barn owls and I want to help make that happen, one nest box at a time if I have to, and I’m opening up this project to anyone wanting to help fund the construction and installation of the nesting box by either purchasing shirts and hoodies from our online store or just making a small donation to the cause for those not needing a shirt but still wanting to pitch in and help.

This isn’t going to be a one-and-done project, not in the very least, as I am working on more nesting box opportunities for down the road after this one is finished, hopefully even adding a project or two on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge someday, as well, including more American kestrel boxes and maybe even some burrowing owl nesting sites, but those are stories for another day.

In fact, the same landowner who is graciously allowing for this barn owl nesting box to be erected has also agreed to have a nesting box for peregrine falcons installed in another location on his farm where a falcon has been spotted daily for over a month now, hoping a nesting box will entice him to find a mate and nest in this location someday.

Once this initial barn owl project is complete, a blog post will not only be written and published here on this website to give notice of its completion, but future blog posts will hopefully give updates on successful nesting efforts in the years to come.

Each and every project I am undertaking, in fact, will have blog posts attatched to them, both for their competion and hopefully of their nesting succes from our efforts, so if you want to help give this pair of barn owls a place to nest next breeding season you definitely can just by purchasing items from our online store and sharing this blog post with other birdwatchers you might know.

It’s been 9 years now of photographing and writing about birds and nature for this website, so I want to give back a little bit for all of what nature has given me, not just for this website but decades of pure enjoyment of birdwatching since I was little and introduced to the world of birds when my friends and I started raising pigeons as a hobby.

(What Do Great Horned Owls Do During The Day? For short nature photography tips and interesting stories about the natural world around us, subscribe to our Bear River Blogger channel on YouTube for videos and updates from our travels while out in nature, both on and off of the famed Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.)