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What’s important to you in a home? Is it safety? Or comfort? Do you prefer to live in a certain area over another? Or have your bedroom face East or West?
When it comes to choosing their homes, barn owls aren’t super picky. However, they do require a few things from a potential nesting site if they’re going to move in.
Barn owls are able to live in many places. They’re found world-wide in countries with moderate climates. Within those countries, they choose to make their homes in a variety of odd places.
The most important things barn owls consider when choosing a place to live are:
- Access to food
- Protection from the weather and predators
- How high the nest is off the ground
As long as they find a spot that provides these three things, they won’t mind where it is they settle into. Barn owls are cavity dwellers – this means they live in holes or caves. These can all look different.
You can find barn owls in:
- Rock crevices
- Tree cavities
- Crevices between the fronds of palm trees
- Small caves in cliff sides
- Holes in riverbanks
- Rafters
- Attics
- Between hay bales
- Barrels
- Grain silos
- Church steeples
- Steel or plastic drums
- Nesting boxes
What all of these have in common is they are prime vantage points. They are the perfect spots for hunting and keeping the barn owl safe. Being high up off the ground matters because it makes it difficult for predators that want to prey on the barn owl or its eggs. They also provide a quick escape when needed!
The direction of the nest matters, too. It needs to face away from the harsh weather and protect the barn owls from wind, sun, and rain. And, when it faces the ideal angle, the sun can provide incubation for the eggs, too!
Since barn owls can be found in a variety of places, you can get a sense for where they may have been when they gagged their pellets based on what material you find on the outside of the pellet!
Buy pellets at the button below and read more about where they may have been from in our guide here (page 37).
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