A Barn Owl box on a metal pole in Marin County, California.

It’s been a busy time for WildCare’s work on all things owls! Ian Elwood was promoted to Director of Hungry Owl Project, and brings 12 years of experience growing nonprofit programs focused on animal protection and the environment, plus the hands-on experience of working in the WildCare Solutions department since 2017. Since starting Ian has increased sales and revenue dramatically, including selling 47 nesting boxes in one month—a new record! Check out our numbers in WildCare’s upcoming annual report for more information on our recent successes.

We created a new Barn Owl box design and can now ship boxes anywhere in the United States. It includes all box pieces and hardware, and is assembled, painted, and installed by the customer. It’s more affordable too, so it makes providing Barn Owl habitat accessible to more people. We’re also installing local nesting boxes in-house now rather than outsourcing, another way that we have increased efficiency to provide better service and help support WildCare’s bottom line.

We’re constantly updating the resources available on our website so that people who choose to build nesting boxes or purchase them elsewhere have all of the information they need to create a safe home for nesting owls and other birds. We recently updated our Barn Owl Box Manual (PDF) and now recommend installing boxes on metal poles—a recent study shows that the old way of installing boxes on wood posts and/or trees has a lower success rate. Thinking about reinstalling a nesting box mounted on a tree or wood post? Good idea! Download the Barn Owl Box Manual (PDF) for the new guidelines.

We’ve finished box cleaning season and will begin box monitoring season soon. If you’re interested in being a volunteer box monitor, contact us. If you’re interested in purchasing an owl box, please fill out the owl box request form so we will have all of the information we need to recommend the most appropriate nesting box for your location.