The Eastern Screech Owl, (Megascops asio) as
the name indicates, is found in the eastern United States, up into Canada and down into Mexico too, while the Western
Screech Owl lives in the western United States from Canada also down to Mexico, their territories only overlapping
a little.
Both the western and eastern screech
owl pair for life, with the exception of a male that may stray occasionally. They lay two to seven white eggs that the female
will incubate while the male supplies her with food.
They have a diet, in part, of worms, insects (sometimes caught on the wing) chipmunks, mice, small birds, bats,
moles, small fish, toads and frogs.
We can find this owl in two colors,
red and grey, some areas they inhabit will have one or the other color and some a mix. When breeding, color does not play
a part in finding a partner.
BirdHouse Placement
Both the eastern and western screech owls are known to use nest boxes for both nesting and as a winter roost.
Nests are usually found in cavities at a height of 7-20 feet, so we would suggest a height of 10-12 feet for your nest box,
it's not too high to get to and likely can be viewed easily. Though screech owls may be comfortable nesting close to your
home, their protectiveness of their nest when they have young may suggest that a little distance is better kept between the
two.
They do not make a traditional nest but, when nesting in a cavity
left by a woodpecker for instance, they will create a depression in whatever is left in the cavity, with that in mind
we suggest when hanging a screech owl house, that an inch or so of wood shavings is placed in the bottom of the box. We
supply a bag of wood shavings with our Screech
Owl House
Secure your owl house in a deciduous tree in dense shade facing
south, so as to moderate the temperature, in summer it has the shade and when the leaves fall it will be warmed by the sun
during winter.
As
mentioned, part of the diet of the Eastern Screech Owls are insects and to catch them while flying would indicate a rather
fast agile, flying bird, and in fact it does have a wing beat of around 5 beats per second.
Predators.
Many of the creatures that include the Eastern Screech Owl in their diet, are in fact other larger owls including the Great Horned
Owl, the Great Gray Owl, Snowy Owls and Barred Owls, as well as Raccoons, Skunks, Weasels and Snakes. With that many predators
the mortality rate of young and even mature adults is quite high.