John has great advice. You want to avoid metal, which will heat up and potentially kill or harm anything inside. Best practices would also be to avoid painting, staining or treating the wood with preservatives or creosote. Milk cartons are also best avoided. NestWatch has a lot of useful information on providing nest boxes and monitoring nests. Below is a direct link to the nest box plans, but you may want to explore other parts of the site too.
http://nestwatch.org/learn/nest-box-resource-center/nest-box-construction-plans/ Best, Chris Chris Wood eBird & Neotropical Birds Project Leader Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York http://ebird.org http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 10:31 AM, John Confer <con...@ithaca.edu> wrote: > HI Folks, > > I have no information about using metal boxes as potential nest > boxes. Owls probably can't be too picky about the shape of their nest box > because natural cavities come in a variety of shapes. But I do have a > concern. I wonder if metal boxes wouldn't get too hot if they get direct > sun. I wonder if they would lack insulation and get too cold when the > temperature drops. I don't think owls carry much nesting material, if any > at al, and sitting on a piece of metal could be really near lethal in cold > weather and really hard on eggs. Maybe you could line the box with plywood? > > Anyone else have nesting experiences for birds in metal containers? > > I put up one of Brad Prentise's owl boxes and had an owl use it for a > winter roost, once in about 15 years. I know other's have had an occasional > owl and Hooded Merganser use Brad's boxes. It is fun to put them up and > hope. > > Good luck, > > John Confer > > I think this is entirely appropriate for the list serve. > > > > > On 6/29/2014 5:57 PM, Robin Cisne wrote: > > I hope you'll excuse this being somewhat off-topic, but I could use some > sage counsel. I have an old mailbox that I was thinking I could nail up in > a tree in hopes an owl would roost in it. Am I deluding myself? If this > is a realistic possibility, are there things I could do to make it more > attractive? I put up a bat house a couple of years ago and am disappointed > that it remains unused. > Thanks for your help, > Robin > > > > -- > *"* > > > *I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: "Two vast and trunkless > legs of stone Stand in the desert...." * > P.B. Shelley > > > > -- > *Cayugabirds-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail Archive > <http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> > BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> > *Please submit your observations to eBird > <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>!* > -- > > > -- > *Cayugabirds-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail Archive > <http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> > BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> > *Please submit your observations to eBird > <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>!* > -- > -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
