Bat House Forum

[IowaNate]

  I was pondering the thought of putting up a screech owl box in my large maple tree. These owls are very small (9" tall) and have been known to roost in my area. I read that the screech owls diet consists primarily of large insects, mice, shrews, frogs, and worms...but to a lesser extent they have been known to eat small birds and you guessed it, bats.

  Does anyone have any advice on this? I am kinda in a 50/50 state of mind right now since I have a large amount of mice in my neighborhood, and am thinking that the owls would prefer an easy ground target (mice) rather than a erratically flying bat.

[Terry Lobdell]

Nate, I have read that owls have been known to perch near a bat house then grab them when they exit........I've thought about mounting an owl box nearby but decided to stick to bat houses for that reason.........I've assisted with owl pellet disections in schools and don't recall any bat bones being found.........all the bones were from small rodents and occasionally a bird.......Mounting an owl box then checking the pellets for bat bones would be an enteresting experiment to try though.........

[IowaNate]

 Hopefully since they are screech owls which are the size of a small crow wouldn't be a major threat to bats, as opposed the large barn owls and great horned owls which are definate predators of bats. The owl box will be designed to permit only the smaller Eastern screech owl and not it's larger cousins.

[Erik]

Hi Nate,

small owls, for example screech owls are maybe not the most dangerous predators for bats. Screech Owls hunt mostly on prey on the ground, attacking them from the air. They are probably not agile enough to hover in front of the bat box and catch bats on flight that are trying to leave the bat house or are trying to get in.

But be careful, I guess owls are pretty clever and from observing the bat house from its perch a screech owl might learn how to catch bats at the entrance of the bat house. I'm am pretty sure an owl is able to hear the bats getting active in the evening and is to get grip on the landing pad to catch bats that are about to leave the roost, or just entered it (in the morning).

Erik

P.S. the movie below is from an entirely different situation, but it is from a bird that was not considered as a bat predator until recently. But then, magpies are pretty clever birds!
 

[BatMan]

That is a cool video....... and at the same time, not cool. Did you video that Erik ?

That building needs some spikes or metal flashing installed to keep that magpie from getting to more of those bats.

 

Nate, I have also thought about putting up a screech box but like you, was wondering if that would be such a good idea. I used to have a great horned owl that I raised from a chick, very interesting birds.

[William Bagwell]

Bumping an old thread again. Seems every time I have an idea, I see you folks have already had it. Great minds think alike

Did any one ever try this? What I have read the past few days mirrors what Nate found in that smaller owls rarely take bats. Though it can happen

One thing I am confused on: Are you referring to true Screech-owls (genus Megascops)? And not the common barn owls (Tyto alba) which are also sometimes called Screech or Scritch Owls. Which while a bit larger than true screech owls are not that large and are some times taken by even larger owls such as the Great Horned.

One interesting little tidbit of information regarding Barn Owls is that if they are being preyed upon themselves they will avoid hunting close to there own nest box to avoid attracting attention. Clever birds!

William

[cloudman75]

Nate,
I have screech owls here nesting in dead pine tree cavities at times. They are cute little owls but bats are definitely on their menu from what I read.
I have not actually seen them catch a bat, but they hunt at night when bats are out feeding and not paying attention except to food. I personally would not encourage the owls to live close to my bats. William, a barn owl has a large heart shaped face as I know them and much larger. I also have those. Night before last I had a great horned owl watching the bat houses at dusk. I think it was also keeping an eye on my guineas.


Frank

[IowaNate]

I never did put up an owl box, and the species was the small Megascops asio that I was going to attempt to attract. But I decided to save the idea for if I ever gain a few country acres one day.

[William Bagwell]

Pretty much an on hold idea for me as well I was just hoping that someone had tried it. My wife is battling voles in the garden and found a site selling plastic barn owl boxes. (Not going to link to it, but you can find it in a few seconds with Google.) Neat concept, and it looks like at least part of his product is roto molded. This naturally started the wheels turning in my head. Thoughts such as; "Hmm, screech owl's are smaller than barn owls, so they need a smaller house..." and "This guy is a zoologist not a maintenance technician, he ain't building his own molds."

Since I'm still way too busy with my own project, he is safe for a few more years.

William