We live on a heavily wooded two acre property, so there are plenty of places for the visiting wildlife to set up house. There are palmettos for the low nesting birds such as Carolina wrens and cardinals , tall trees for the squirrels and other birds that like to be a little higher, and lots of other places to hide, such as fallen logs and wood piles, for snakes and lizards. Since we have lived here, we have seen many “families” and babies on the property, including gopher tortoises, box turtles, opossums, raccoons, and a large variety of birds.
But every now and then we just can’t resist hanging a nestbox to see what it will attract.
Several years ago, when we saw a pair of barred owls cooing and cuddling on our property, we built a huge nest box to see if we could entice them into using it. It seemed unlikely, since our wooded property is joined by others on both sides and there is a vacant lot (also wooded) across the street. Still, we bought some lumber and made our first nestbox.
Barred owls are very large birds, so the box was a large one. It is 12” x 28” with a 7” diameter entrance hole. My husband carefully carried the box up a tall ladder and affixed it to a palm tree in our back yard and we waited.
Within a few weeks, we did see one of the barred owls land on the box, but he (or she) didn’t show much interest in it. My guess is that they had already started their family in the vacant lot across the street. Several months later, we saw a baby barred owl on our property.
The first time that we saw something actually using the large nest box, it was a family of raccoons. I was out working in the yard and looked up and there were two little faces poking out of the large hole in the front of the box. It was during a very cold winter and it was the perfect spot for them to stay warm.
Then one day this year, we were working in the back yard, looked over and saw something else peeking out of the box. We grabbed our binoculars and saw that it was a little screech owl sitting in the opening of the box. We were thrilled. We had never seen a screech owl on our property and he (or she) sat in the opening of the box for hours on end, giving us great opportunities to observe and photograph him.
For the next few weeks, we saw the owl, who we named Screech, poking out of the box quite often. Then we saw a pair of wood ducks visit the box. Wood ducks are some of our other favorite visiting birds. The males are beautiful, colorful birds and we often hear their soft calls to each other from the ditch behind our home. But because they are so skittish, we rarely get a good look at the birds.
When we saw them checking out the large nestbox, we decided we better make another box so that there would be plenty of room for everyone.
That weekend, we constructed a new, slightly smaller box. We even decorated this one a little by painting leaves on the sides and again, my husband carried the box up a tall ladder and hung it in a huge oak on our property.
Within two days, we saw the little screech owl in the new box. Within a week, we saw the wood ducks checking out the older box. The male and female wood duck would sit on top of the box and peer down towards the door, so we assumed they must have eggs in the box. We were careful to give them a wide berth, since we know how skittish they are.
Unfortunately, we don’t think that either box will end up raising a family. Frankly, there are just too MANY visitors to these boxes, and some of them make quite a racket.
I watched as a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers explored and pecked away at the new nest box. I half expected to see the screech owl come out and chase them away, but I never did. In fact, I never saw screech again after the woodpecker visit.
I’ve also seen a pair of pileated woodpeckers visit the original nest box. Not only did they peck away on the top and sides of the box, but they actually jumped right into the box and pecked at it from the inside. I can’t imagine that the wood ducks, or any other critters for that matter, would continue to nest in a box that is being hammered away at like that.
The woodpeckers have visited most of the nestboxes on our property over the years, pecking out the front holes to gain entry and see if there are any tasty bugs lurking inside. Only once have I seen them get chased away by something using the box – a feisty little flying squirrel that made it perfectly clear that solicitors were NOT welcome while she was home.
So far, none of the larger birds that we have created special housing for have nested in any of the boxes, although we have seen titmice and great crested flycatchers use some of the smaller ones. We assume that the barred owls, screech owl and wood ducks have moved along to other spots a little more private and less enticing to the woodpeckers. But we still don’t regret building and hanging the boxes. After all, they are great places to visit, even if nobody wants to live there.
Interested in building your own nestboxes? Here are some resources that might help:
How to Build a Screech-Owl Nest Box: https://www.audubon.org/news/how-build-screech-owl-nest-box
Creating a Wild Backyard – Barred Owl Nest Box Plan: https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/pages/habitat/wabarrowlplan.aspx
Betsy S. Franz, Copyright 2011
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