Attracting Owls to Your Backyard

—Julia Koch, Environmental Educator

Owls can help control squirrel and rodent populations, and they are not highly active during the day, allowing them to coexist well with other backyard birds. Here are 10 tips for attracting owls to your backyard, and keep reading to find out how to build an owl nesting box.

1.      Avoid extensive exterior lighting—owls hunt more effectively in darkness and will not visit well-lit yards.

2.      Keep hollow trees and leave large, bare branches and dead trees intact as much as possible to provide perches and roosting spots.

3.      Build tall owl nest boxes.

4.      Let part of your yard go natural.

5.      Leave grass, brush, or seed on the ground to make the yard more mouse-friendly, which in turn makes it more owl-friendly.

6.      Provide a large, deep birdbath in a quiet, secluded area during the summer.

7.      Remove netting from your yard.

8.      Avoid using recorded owl calls or releasing cage mice, as it can disrupt the owl’s natural hunting and nesting activities.

9.      Don’t spray insecticides, herbicides, or pesticides in your backyard; it kills the food source that owls and other predators in your backyard are going to eat.

10.   Plant native trees, shrubs, and flowers to attract bugs, which will attract birds and rodents that eat those bugs and in turn attract owls that eat those birds/rodents. Bird feeders also attract rodents.

How To Make a Nesting Box for an Owl

The type and size of nesting box will depend on the type of owl you are wanting to attract. This nesting box is the perfect size for smaller owls such as screech owls.

Tools and materials:

·        8 feet by 1 foot piece of wood

·        Wood saw

·        3-inch circular drill saw

·        Tape measure

·        Pencil

·        Nail gun and nails

·        Screw gun and screws

1.      Measure and cut your pieces from the wood with the following dimensions:

a.      One back piece: 27 ½ inches long x 10 inches wide

b.      Two side pieces: 18 ½ inches long at the front, 22 ½ inches long at the back (22 ½ degree angle at the top), 10 inches wide

c.      One front piece: 18 ½ inches long x 9 inches wide

d.      One floor piece: 8 7/8 inches square

e.      One roof piece: 14 inches long by 10 inches wide, 22 ½ degree angle cut at the top end

f.       Two cleat pieces: 9 inches wide and 1 inch long

2.      Use the circular saw to cut out a hole in the front piece. It should be about 9 to 10 inches from the bottom of the board. On the board’s underside, use the power saw to create scores in the wood. Do not cut all the way through; you are simply creating footholds for young owlets to climb up when they are old enough to leave the box.

3.      Nail your cleat pieces to the bottom of the side pieces. The cleat pieces are 1 inch shorter than the width of the side pieces; place the cleats all the way to the backs of the side pieces (the long ends) so the gap will be at the front (the short ends).

4.      Nail the side pieces to the back piece. Allow a ¼-inch reveal on either side of the back piece. Set only as many nails as you need to hold the pieces in place; later, you will use a screw gun and screws to secure the pieces more permanently.

5.      Nail the front piece. It should rest inside the side pieces and in front of the cleat pieces at the bottom of the sides. Nail the front piece into place.

6.      At this point, screw everything together. The screws will hold everything in place more permanently than the nails will.

7.      Set the floor piece in place. it should be ever so slightly smaller than the dimensions of the floor area. It will rest on top of the cleat pieces so that it can be pushed up from the bottom, which will make for easier cleaning of the box. If necessary, set some screws just above the floor piece to hold it down so racoons or other creatures can’t push it up. When it comes time to clean the box, simply remove screws so you can lift up on the floor.

8.      Lastly, fit the top piece into place. First securing it with nails, then adding a screw to secure it at each corner.

9.      Mount the box on the trunk of a tree. Make sure it isn’t too close to the house or any high-traffic areas. Secure it to the tree by screwing at the top and bottom.

What direction should an owl nesting box face? When deciding where to mount your owl box, the most important thing is to keep it from facing into the prevailing winds, and in most areas, they will be most sheltered from the wind if the box is facing away from the north.

How deep should an owl nesting box be? The nesting box above is about 9 to 10 inches deep from the hole to the floor. As a general rule of thumb, think about the average size of the owl and make the depth of the box a few inches less.

For a great visual on this nesting box method, check out the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-DD2myDDxs.