Owls hunt in near silence and can clear a remarkable number of rodents from a property over a single breeding season. Screech, saw-whet and boreal owls will all use a nesting box if it is placed well. These guides cover what owls eat, where they nest, how to read their calls, and how to choose, mount and maintain an owl habitat.

Fun Facts About Owls: Discover All About Owls & Their Habits

WildYard cedar owl box mounted on a tree, sized for screech owls and other small owl species

Owl Box Buyer's Guide: How to Choose, Place & Attract Owls

A complete owl box buyer's guide: how to choose the right owl nest box by species, entry-hole size and mounting height, where to place it, and when owls move in.

Owl questions, answered

  • Owls are carnivores, and the menu tracks the size of the bird. Screech, saw-whet and boreal owls take mostly mice, voles, shrews, large insects and the occasional songbird. Barn Owls specialise in rodents. Great Horned Owls, several times heavier, will take rabbits, skunks and even other owls. Prey is swallowed whole or in pieces, and the bone and fur comes back up hours later as a pellet.

  • Hooting is territory and courtship, not chatter. A male calls to advertise the patch he has claimed and to draw a mate, and an established pair will duet to hold both the bond and the boundary. Calling peaks in late winter and early spring, ahead of nesting. Owls work at night because their prey does, so the calling runs on the same schedule.

  • Lifespan tracks body size. Screech owls and Northern Saw-whets typically manage five to ten years in the wild, while Great Horned Owls regularly reach their twenties. Barn Owls are shorter-lived, with heavy first-year mortality pulling the average down. Captive owls outlast wild ones by a wide margin. Most owls that die, die young, which is why a well-placed, well-maintained nesting habitat earns its keep.

  • Owls turn up on every continent except Antarctica, across forest, desert, grassland, farmland and suburb. Almost none of them build a nest. They take over what already exists: woodpecker cavities, hollow snags, cliff ledges, abandoned hawk and crow nests, barns and towers. Once mature dead trees are cleared from a property, those cavities disappear. See how owl nesting boxes work for what fills the gap.

  • Realistically, no. The owls that move into nesting boxes — screech, saw-whet, boreal — weigh roughly 2 to 9 ounces (65–250 g) and hunt mice, voles and insects. A grown cat or dog is far outside what they can lift or handle. Very young kittens and puppies should not be left outdoors unattended in any case. Nesting owls do dive at people who crowd the box, so give them room in spring.

  • Yes, though it depends which owl. Great Horned Owls and Barred Owls take grey and fox squirrels regularly, usually at dawn or dusk while the squirrels are still moving. Screech owls and saw-whets are nowhere near big enough for an adult tree squirrel, but they will take a flying squirrel at night. To work out who is on your property, start with the squirrel species guide.

  • Not a screech. Eastern Screech Owls give a descending whinny, close to a horse, plus a long even trill held on one pitch. Western Screech Owls give a bouncing-ball run of short whistles that accelerates at the end. Both carry a long way on still nights and take about a minute to learn. More on the bird in five things you didn’t know about Eastern Screech Owls.

  • Owls need food, cover and a cavity, in that order. Keep open ground they can hunt over, leave brush piles and rough grass so rodents stay around, and skip rodenticide, since poisoned prey passes the poison straight up the chain. Mount the habitat before late winter so it is standing when pairs go looking. Full walkthrough in how to attract owls, and the rodent-control case in why owl boxes work.

  • Cavity nesters. Eastern and Western Screech Owls are the likeliest tenants across most of North America, followed by Northern Saw-whet Owls, Boreal Owls through northern forest, and Elf Owls in the desert Southwest. Barn Owls occasionally investigate a box built to the right dimensions. Match the entrance diameter and floor area to the species you actually have locally, mount it, then leave it alone.

  • Ten to fifteen feet (3–4.5 m) is the working range. A living tree beats a pole: steadier, cooler through summer, and it reads as ordinary cover. Face the entrance toward open ground the birds can hunt over, and turn it away from prevailing wind and driving rain. Keep it well clear of any bat habitat — owl boxes and bat boxes shouldn’t mix.

  • Squirrels want the same cavity, so make it harder to reach and less rewarding. Fit a metal predator baffle on the trunk or pole below the box, add a metal plate around the entrance so the hole cannot be chewed wider, and trim branches back about 3 feet (1 m) on every side. Check through autumn and clear out any leaf-and-twig nest before the owls start prospecting.

Owl habitats from WildYard

Handcrafted cedar, sized and sited for the cavity-nesting owls that already hunt your yard.

Owl Box for Yards Owl Box for Yards $49.99 View habitat