About Us
The Barn Owl Box was designed by Mark Browning, an animal trainer and field researcher for the Pittsburgh Zoo. Browning has studied barn owls for the past seven years and conducted the first satellite telemetry study of the barn owl's seasonal movements. The idea for a lightweight, long-lasting barn owl box that could be fitted into prefabricated metal barns grew out of his conservation efforts on behalf of this valuable predator.As wooden barns are increasingly being replaced by metal structures, the barn owls are not afforded places to nest. The Barn Owl Box satisfies the needs of the farmer to have a barn secure from pests, and the needs of this beautiful bird. At the same time, the farmer benefits from the high number of harmful rodents consumed by the birds.
- To provide a high quality, long lasting, and affordable barn owl nest box
- To encourage the use of barn owls in integrated pest management programs around the world
- To promote the conservation not only of the barn owl, but the ecosystems that it inhabits
Our Goals:
In conjunction with Moraine Preservation Fund, and the help of numerous professionals in the field, Browning conducted the first satellite tracking study of barn owl movements. A team of volunteers attached lightweight transmitters to sixteen young barn owls, released them in western Pennsylvania, and tracked them for one year.
The results showed that young barn owls in northern latitudes disperse widely in the late fall and that many go south to the Gulf states. Many of the birds flew over 200 miles in a four day period. One owl flew as far as New Orleans for the winter, a distance of over 1200 miles. Another wintered in coastal South Carolina and returned to a barn only forty miles from its original release point near Pittsburgh. Data from such studies is helping to formulate conservation efforts for this bird which has declined in many northern states.