UKC

I have a small window (about 9 inches tall by 5 inches wide) in the gable end (north facing) of my garage. I have been for a long while thinking it might be worth removing it to attract owls. I have never seen or heard a barn owl in our vicinity, but we do sometimes hear tawnies. My original idea was to just stick a box on the inside wall over the ex-window, perhaps with a hole to fix a camera looking into the box. However, looking at Owl Trust websites it seems that a box on the wall inside the building but not where the access hole would be is right for barn owls, while boxes for tawnies seem to be placed on the outside of the wall. If I were to knock the little window out and place a box designed for tawnies inside the garage, would the tawnies find it? Or perhaps I should set up a box inside as the Owl Trust advise and hope that there are barn owls around  despite never seeing or hearing them. I'm really confused at the moment!

Do you know if your local tawnies are nesting nearby already? If they have a successful nest site and are too close for another breeding pair then it might go to waste (or end up with jackdaws in!)

Whatever you do please put a layer of sand/sawdust or something else which will stop the eggs rolling away from the incubating bird.  Owls do not build nests.

I'm all for providing a tawny nest box (I have one myself, although only been used by grey squirrels so far), but just be mindful that they will aggressively defend a nest if people get too near. Is there anywhere quieter than your garage where you could site it?

Also they are tricky to put up as I found when trying to climb a ladder one handed with a drill and cumbersome nest box in the other. Screwed a fixing hook into the tree and rigged a pulley system in the end, which made it a lot easier to then have both hands free to finish off the installation. 

I wouldn’t bother. Tawny owls generally nest in woodland, I doubt they would nest in a box on a building, especially if decent nest sites exist nearby. And unless your garage backs onto to barn owl hunting grounds, they won’t nest either. I’d stick up a sparrow box instead - they can nest in small colonies and need all the help they can get, hopefully you might get tree sparrows. And you won’t get pestered with squirrels. 

I was hoping someone who knew stuff would come along. Thanks