Where to hang a barred owl house out in the wild? It’s ideal to plan where you place your birdwatching tools.
Owl houses are a great project because they’re a lot of fun to make or assemble. Plus, they provide a nice and safe home for its intended birds. If you’re considering taking on the project, you will be up for a fun time and you have the opportunity to provide a nice home for an owl.
Have you built a nice house for a barred owl and hoping that one of the most common night raptors will take some shelter in it? Read on to learn more about how to accomplish this project.
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What Is A Barred Owl?
A barred owl is a species that is typically found in North America. This owl has a distinct hooting call and a round, white body streaked with brown patterns. It is a large species that can grow from 16 to 23 inches or about 40 to 58 cm in height. Note that when you are taking the barred owl box dimensions!
You can see or hear this owl around throughout the year. The owl is known to come close to suburban areas, so some of these wild birds have grown accustomed to human presence.
Owls may be depicted as cute and wise in popular culture. However, they’re one of the most vicious birds of prey in the wild. They typically feed on small prey like rodents and small mammals, swooping in for their choice picks. Their sharp and powerful talons clutch onto their prey.
Owls might not be a good idea for homes that have small pets. However, people who have pest problems in their homes welcome these raptors’ hunting skills in their territory. Depending on your situation or needs, inviting owls to your yard should have a lot of considerations.
Where To Hang A Barred Owl House
Where is the best place to make sure your stylish barred owl nesting box gains a tenant? Here are the tips you must pay attention to, get your owl house filled in.
Choose a Dense Location
You won’t get an interested tenant if you don’t locate the owl house a good way into the woods. Owls appreciate an area that is located deeper into the trees rather than the edges of the forest.
Of course, you might still find some takers for owl houses you installed in your yard. As mentioned, barred owls do appear in more urban locations. So, your yard may be a prime place for owls to hide away in-dependent on other location factors of your home, of course.
Choose a Clear Location
This advice may seem like the total opposite of the previous one, but this just means making sure the opening to the barred owl house is visible and free from obstruction.
Make sure that there is a decent flight path moving in and taking off from the barred owl house. This ensures that it is easy to move in and out of the owl house.
Choose a High Location
A good rule of thumb is to install the owl house at least 10 to 15 feet or about 3 to 4.5 meters on the tree. This is the ideal height that owls like to rest in.
You can choose to construct a pole in order to support the owl house. However, installing the owl house on a tree is a better guarantee of getting an owl to inhabit the box.
How To Attract Owls To The Owl House
Now you have the owl house and you have a place that you want to install it in! All that’s left is to find an owl family to make use of it. Do you know where to hang a barred owl house to attract the bird?
Barred owls are likely to nest inside your owl house. They tend to prefer the hollow of large trees and even nests that have been abandoned even by different species, but a well-situated owl house is a good alternative in their eyes.
Keep the Owl House Hidden Among Branches
Not that you should obscure the entrance of the owl house, but you want the box to be among the branches of the trees as if it naturally grew there.
The branches also serve as natural perches for the owls, so it’s ideal to keep them up and not prune them.
Turn the Lights Down Low
These nocturnal creatures don’t need lights to do their nightly hunts, and they prefer to stay away from overly-bright places.
If you want to attract owls, make sure to turn off your yard lights in the evening, and try to keep all the other lights down low.
Add a Birdbath to Your Backyard
All kinds of birds love a nice birdbath – not just songbirds, but even raptors, too. A nice splash in the water is something that is appreciated by most birds.
If you mean for the birdbath to be used by owls, you should install something that is a bit bigger and can fit these night birds. Whether they are taking a dip or a drink, you should consider their typical sizes before setting up the bath or fountain in your yard.
Cut Your Grass Less Often
Are you the type to neaten up your yard very often? Let go of that mower if you really want to have owls in your backyard. One of the best ways to attract owls is to make sure you have a good amount of prey littering your yard.
That includes rodents and small mammals that like to hide in the long grass. You don’t need to have an overgrown yard, but just a bit more length will attract more of the owl’s favorite prey to your grounds – and in turn, provide some good snacks for the owls.
Conclusion
Owls are powerful, majestic creatures that are interesting to observe. They can also make quick work of the rodent problem in your yard. There are a number of things that you can install in your yard that can attract these amazing hunters to your abode.
Have you ever installed an owl house or any kind of birdhouse in your yard? Did you accomplish getting an owl to sit in one of these homes? Let us know about your success and even your failures in the comments below!
