Screech Owl Box

Owls take a larger, quieter box. This one is stained oak, 16 inches deep, with a 3-inch oval entrance and a rough interior so fledglings can climb. An interior baffle keeps raccoons from reaching in. Mount 10–20 feet up on a tree at the edge of woods and field, with a clear approach.

An American kestrel — a small falcon, about the size of a mourning dove — will use the same cavity if the hole and the habitat are right. Kestrels hunt in the open: hayfield, meadow, orchard, or a fence line with grass to watch. Put this box on a pole in that kind of country, not on the owl’s wood-edge trunk. Same house, different neighborhood.