How to Build An Eastern Screech Owl Nest Box

How to work up an easterly screech owl nest box is crucial if screech owl ( Megascops genus Asio ) are regular house physician of your attribute . Their richly - gear , whinny call can be try on summertime nights . find oneself all across the easterly U.S. , Canada and Mexico , easterly screaming owls are nocturnal predator that feed on mice , voles , rabbit , squirrels and even enceinte dirt ball . Another coinage , the western screech owl ( Megascops kennicottii ) is nearly very , and it ’s find across the western part of the continent . It ’s important to encourage as many screech owls as possible because they help control rodent . you may further them by building an Eastern screech owl nest box .

Both type of screech owls are dental caries nester , typically making a family in a antecedently excavated woodpecker hole or in a manmade nesting box . Breeding pairs often take back to the same golf hole every time of year . They opt subject woodlands , grassland and ballpark for nesting land site , but they ’ve adjusted quite well to humankind and can often be discover nesting in suburban backyard .

We further these helpful nocturnal predators to call our dwelling theirs by put up a screech bird of Minerva nest boxful on our holding . Eastern screech owls typically lay eggs in April , with each brood containing between one and six eggs . After a cheeseparing calendar month - longsighted incubation period , the eggs hatch . The parent owls feed their growing baby lots of bug ( including beetles , cicadas and crickets ) as well as piece of beast flesh . Here are the plans we expend to make our screech owl nest boxes . The original plan for this screech owl nesting box came from theTreasure Coast Wildlife Centerin Florida .

wood needed for making a screeech owl nest box

Jessica Walliser

What You’ll Need to Build an Eastern Screen Owl Nest Box

How to Build an Eastern Screen Owl Nest Box – Steps 1 to 5

Step 1

bar and label the cedar display panel accord to the following photograph . Then habituate a mitre or orbitual saw to cut the board into pieces along the pronounced lines .

Step 2

Take the musical composition marked as the front panel and practise a 3 - in hole in the centre so the bottom of the kettle of fish is 10 inch from the base of the control panel .

Step 3

lie down the piece marked as the back panel on a level piece of work control surface . Set the two side panels up on their back edges . ( The high edge of their slope should be against the back control panel . ) Put the piece set as the bottom panel against what will be the bottom of the box .

Step 4

Predrill holes for the screws and attach the bottom panel to the root word of the sides .

Step 5

Carefully come up the now link up , U - shaped side and bottom panels off the back control panel and flip out them over , putting them face - down onto the layer work airfoil . localise the back venire on top of them , run along the side edges up so there ’s a small overhang on each side . The top of the back panel should extend about 4 to 5 inches beyond the top slanted sharpness of the side panels .

How to Build an Eastern Screen Owl Nest Box – Steps 6 to 10

Step 6

Predrill holes along both edges of the back panel , and then love the back panel to the side panels along each bound .

Step 7

throw the task over so it ’s resting on the back panel again . impound the hinged roof by put the roof venire on the slanted bound of the side panels . Put the hinges in place , mark the holes , predrill a hole for each roll in the hay , and then secure the flexible joint to the back venire and the roof .

Step 8

sandpaper the edge of the 3 - inch hole in the front panel .

Step 9

bind the front panel to the nest box by predrilling three holes along each edge and then have sex the front panel in place .

Step 10

Your screech owl nest loge is now utter . true cedar is a of course decomposition - resistant woods , so there ’s no pauperism to paint or stain the box seat . Over clip , it will weather to a soft gray .

Placing Your Eastern Screech Owl Nest Box

Your Eastern shrieking owl nest box should be hung on a pole , Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , shed , barn or other structure about 10 to 15 feet off the ground . attempt to place it in an open area near a tree diagram business .

Like all owl , screech owls will not progress a nest inside of their nesting cavity or box . Instead , the females repose their eggs on whatever materials remain from the previous resident ’s digging or nesting efforts . To mime this lifelike junk , put a few inches of woods shavings or pine needles in the bottom of the box seat .

Each winter , make clean out the nest box and exchange the wood shavings in the bottom of the corner .