Texas Barn Owl Project

In February 2020, members of CARRI went to Austin Texas to place Barn Owl nest boxes in the hopes of duplicating the Barn Owl project that has been so successful in Northern Colorado.

The goal of the project is to identify the timing of nesting, including egg-laying dates, and the number of eggs laid, and the food preferences of Barn Owls in Texas, to see how that correlates to Barn Owls in Northern Colorado.

We had ten Barn Owl nest boxes built and CARRI members went to Texas to make sure the boxes were placed in Barn Owl habitat that should hopefully ensure owls will find and use the structures for nesting.

As owls move into the boxes and nesting begins, we will hopefully be able to show you the nesting activity.

Below are some images of some nest boxes in place and volunteers placing the nest boxes.

*On May 15th, 2021 we went to Texas to check our Barn Owl nest boxes. One nest box was active with the adult female owl and a single owlet. One box was previously used by Eastern Screech Owls, but they were not in the box the day we checked it.

A third box had been previously used by Barn Owls and an adult male Barn Owl flew from the structure that the box was in, but the nest was not being used at that time.

The first two images below are of placing the first active box in Texas and the second photo is the owls inside that box in 2021.

The first image (top left) is the nest boxes on a trailer being delivers to their final destinations.

The image on the bottom right is an abandoned work shed where a nest box (third image bottom) was placed inside of.