In what may be the biggest nest box available to cavity nesting birds, a female Barred Owl is incubating 2 eggs she laid last week inside the especially big nest box installed near Indianapolis, Indiana. Fairly famous among birders, this big nest box has attracted nesting pairs of Barred Owls most years since 2003, including last year's pair that raised 2 young owls on camera. This year, starting last Wednesday, March 11, birders were treated to their first look at the first egg, which was revealed when the female Barred Owl took an incubation break on the 24–7 live camera that anyone can check on anytime online.
The clutch sizes of Barred Owls range from 1 to 5 eggs, but most clutches contain 2 or 3 eggs. The female revealed her second egg on the evening of Saturday, March 14th after a day of steady incubation. You can view the live view and see both of the egg reveals in the video highlights that are posted regularly as the nesting cycle progresses at Barred Owl Cam. From this point forward, the female will spend most of the next month incubating the clutch inside the nest box while her mate keeps watch and hunts for food. There is also a second camera that shows the outside of the biggest nest box, which you can access by clicking on the green icon at the top-right side of the viewing screen, or at Outside View.
Only the female incubates the eggs and broods nestlings, but the male is responsible for procuring the bulk of the food, bringing prey items to the female inside and outside the nest box. The incubation period is 28 to 33 days, and the female begins incubating as soon as the first egg is laid, which means the nestlings hatch a couple days apart and are staggered a bit in size and development. Young Barred Owls fledge when they are about 6 weeks old, although they may leave the nest site a short time before actually fledging.
The extra-large nest box that attracts Barred Owls that thrill birders annually is located in the backyard of Wild Birds Unlimited founder, President, and CEO Jim Carpenter, who lives near Indianapolis, Indiana. The big nest box is positioned 32 feet high against the trunk of a hickory tree, and to keep predators like raccoons from reaching the nest, aluminum flashing is wrapped around the tree. The Wild Birds Unlimited Barred Owl Cam has been part of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Bird Cam Network since 2012, and the outside camera was added in 2018 so it is possible to watch the action on the perch, and to monitor the young owls when they leave the nest box to begin the fledging period.
The camera has been upgraded several times since the first low-resolution camera was installed. The most recent upgrade was installed in 2023 – an Axis P3265-LVE 1080p security camera with a microphone so you can also hear the owls and other sounds in the surrounding woods. An infrared illuminator in the nest box lights the interior so you can monitor activities during the night (the infrared light is invisible to the owls). The camera and audio is connected to the computer in Jim's house with a 200-foot cable, and via the computer the Cornell Lab staff take over and stream the video to the internet view, while monitoring the activities and updating the most interesting video segments to the website. Skilled arborist tree climbers maintain the nest box when it needs repairs or camera upgrades; or even just to clean the camera lens – but only out of season when the owls are not using the nest box.
A big nest box that is large enough for Barred Owls should roughly measure 13x13 inches and 23 inches high, with a large 7-inch-diameter entrance hole – it's a very big nest box for very big birds, and possibly a whole brood of them along with an adult. And whether you provide nest boxes for wrens, bluebirds, chickadees, swallows, owls, kestrels, ducks, and other cavity nesting birds, you are benefactors and conservationists that are helping birds in your yard and far beyond – and you are thanked by the presence of remarkable birds around you, and by all other birders! You may also be interested in viewing some of the highlights from last year's nesting season at Top 5 Moments From The 2025 Barred Owl Cam Season | Cornell Lab Bird Cams
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