Our Beautiful
― and Badass ―
Barn Owls
After Years of Waiting,
We’re Thrilled to Welcome a New Nest
By Tyler Hayden | June 6, 2024
I really shouldn’t say “our” barn owls. They belong to no one. But it’s hard not to feel some pride for the new residents of the owl box we hung expectantly on a jacaranda tree five long years ago.
We’d almost given up hope anyone would move in. The seasons came and went with only woodpeckers occasionally banging on the plywood and a pigeon booking a (thankfully) short stay. Even a nearby finch nest failed. We lost a couple of eggs ourselves. Maybe it’s just not meant to be, we thought.
Then, this April, we started hearing the long, rasping “screeeEEEch” of a barn owl in the neighborhood. It’s a magnificent but eerie sound. If you’re not used to it, it’s enough to stop you in your tracks and pray some otherworldly spirit didn’t just descend on your house. The screams would sometimes be followed by softer trills that males use to invite females to a nest site. That meant he was close. The signs were good.
Sure enough, a couple of weeks later, faint scratches and scuffles began emanating from the box, followed by gentle hisses of what we assumed were chicks asking for food. We still hadn’t actually seen an owl until, glancing up from the couch one evening, I caught the flash of white wings against a dark sky as one of the new parents swooped in to deliver breakfast. The chicks and I all gave a little cheer.
The family likes their privacy, and we like to give it to them. So, to satisfy my curiosity of what’s actually happening inside that cozy home perched 12 feet above our heads, I spoke with Jaclyn DeSantis with the Ojai Raptor Center, where we purchased our box. (They also offer detailed building plans for free.) Turns out, barn owls are even cooler — and fiercer — than I thought.
DeSantis said it’s not uncommon for newly installed owl boxes to remain empty for some time. “They don’t have the ability to send out a bat signal,” she explained. If a family is already living in the area and looking to upgrade, they may move in quickly. Otherwise, especially if it’s sited in great horned owl territory, years might pass before a mating pair shows any interest.
Barn owl couples will roost together for life unless one of them dies or disappears. When they’re ready to have chicks, the female makes a nest of her own regurgitated pellets by shredding them with her feet and arranging them into a cup. It’s not as gross as it sounds, DeSantis said — owl pellets are made of 90 percent fur from all the rats, mice, gophers, voles, moles, and other small mammals they eat.
The female starts incubating as soon as she lays her first egg (most mama birds wait until the whole clutch is laid to settle in) while the male does all the hunting for the both of them. She can produce anywhere between two to 13 eggs at a time, though usually five to eight are viable. Unlike most birds, owls may use their nests for roosting throughout the year, and barn owls can raise as many as three clutches annually.
It takes about a month for the chicks to hatch, and when they do, they have an “interesting” appearance. “Great horned owls and other owls are cute right out of the egg,” said DeSantis. “They look like Furbies. Barn owls, on the other hand, look like naked aliens.”
At first, the parents tear food into tiny pieces for the small chicks, but before long, the newborns are able to swallow a whole mouse in one gulp. The chicks don’t leave the nest until they’re almost fully fledged, in about another month.
Given the size and frequency of barn owl clutches, one family can kill up to 3,000 rodents a year, DeSantis explained. That makes them one of the best varmint-control systems money can’t buy. Sometimes, she said, the boxes get so crowded with kids that it makes sense to hang a second box for the parents to stretch their wings in. DeSantis recommended cleaning out the boxes once a year, specifically between November and January to cause the least disruption.
As of this week, “our” chicks are making their first trips out of the nest with short, awkward flights to nearby branches and perches. Mom and Dad, we noticed, are always stationed within sight. We only have a couple of weeks with the little ones until they fly off forever, so we’re savoring every evening with them, the three of us gathered quietly on the porch, one family admiring another.
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