We are a non-profit organization. Please help us keep our Barn Owl Cams going by making a donation!
We have two boxes online now, both are at schools:
Box One Location: San Anselmo, CA (San Francisco Bay Area) The image updates automatically every 20 seconds. We are working on getting this box on live video. Please note: the time stamp on the image is off and the cam is located in California, so it's on Pacific Time. The owlets have flown the coop (fledged and dispersed), glimpses of a barn owl inside the box have been captured by the camera. Perhaps there will be second clutch!
Box Two Location: Nicasio, CA (San Francisco Bay Area) Live streaming video with chat. The female laid the first egg on Easter, April 4. This box waited three years before owls finally moved in. Nicasio is a farming and ranchland area and is perfect habitat for barn owls who provide valuable, organic pest control to the landowners.
Owl cam watchers - if you are on Facebook, you are welcome to join our Hungry Owl Project group and if you capture any good pictures from our cam you can post them or email them to us! Please let us know where you watch the cam from too! If you have questions or concerns about either set of owls, please email webmaster@hungryowl.org. To learn more about the natural history of barn owls, click here.
Box One: San Anselmo, Marin County, CA
June 4, 2010: Haven't seen the juvenile at the box in a while. They have dispersed. Perhaps the adults will start a second clutch - they were seen mating on top of the box tonight...meanwhile, things are still HOPping at the Nicasio box!
Box Two: Nicasio, Marin County, California
The Nicasio School in Nicasio, California has, after three years, a pair of owls using their box. This box is attached to the outside wall of one of the school buildings. School staff and volunteers have connected the video to Ustream. Nicasio, based on our owl box sales and monitoring of boxes, has one of the highest concentrations of barn owls in Marin County. The first egg was laid April 4 (Easter), and there are three chicks in this clutch. Most barn owls average 6 or more eggs, the number of eggs and number of chicks that survive is tied to food abundance. Most of the action in the box happens after dark, not surprisingly... The owls were hatched on May 8, May 9 and May 10. The schoolchildren named them, in birth order: Ginger, Cinnamon & Peppermint.
Click the arrow to start the stream, then you have the option to click on the picture to access the stream directly in a new browser window and participate in live chat with others while observing the box. Hungry Owl Project does not endorse the advertisements that come with this free live-stream provider. The technical support for this stream is through Nicasio School and they do not have on-site technical staff, so if the stream goes out, it can take time to get it going again.
Live Video streaming by Ustream
More information on this box is here.
Check out the videos & photos below for some views of previous nesting!!
The videos below were taken by a camera that is installed outside of the box. (Windows Media File format)
Everyone Present!
Night Fly-out
Mouse Anyone?
Morning Peek
Night Flight
Thanks to volunteer Mike Gallagher for the videos!
04-09-08- Dear Owl Watchers, we are sorry to have to give you this sad news...sometime between late last night and early this morning, the female owl died while in the box. We tuned in to find the owlets huddled around her for warmth. Late today our volunteer tree climber removed the mother's body and the live owlets from the box. The owlets are not yet self-feeding, so even though the male owl brings food, he doesn't feed babies, he drops food off for the female to feed. Until the owls are self-feeding they will have to remain under the care of Hungry Owl and WildCare. The seven beautiful baby barn owls continue to thrive. The older chicks are now self-feeding and have been placed in a owl box at the home of a volunteer who will deliver food to them each night. Here are photos of the owlets:
The large owlet at the top is the first that hatched (on March 25).
This is the baby (#7) that hatched after removal from the box. The eighth
egg has not hatched.
It has been determined that the female owl died of natural, albeit freakish, causes. The skull of a gopher was found wedged in her throat causing death by suffocation. This kind of thing probably happens more than we know because we don't have cameras everywhere. We are very saddened by this loss. Barn Owls have tenuous lives and don't usually live past two years old. We have turned the camera back on because it is possible the male will find a new mate and begin again, but so far no new activity has been seen in the box. Please let us know if you see any visitors in the box!
These barn owls are nesting in a box in San Anselmo, CA. Barn owls require a cavity or secluded ledge to nest - these are hard to come by and nesting boxes provide more opportunities for these beneficial birds to nest. The image will automatically refresh every 20 seconds. We cannot guarantee that it will work with all browsers. We recommend Internet Explorer on the Windows platform or Firefox on either Windows or Apple operating systems. While you are watching the cam, if you see anything particularly good, quickly save the image to your computer by right clicking your mouse and from the menu choose Save Picture As. We'd love it if you sent us the image (as a jpg file) - send to the webmaster. Or just send an email describing what you observed! Scroll down to see some pictures we've captured. Donations for the cost of the connection to stream the pictures and other costs involved with maintaining the owl cam are gratefully accepted! We'd love to get better cameras and also to have cams at other schools in Marin County.
November 2007 - Two Owls Roosting in the Box
March 2008 - 8 beautiful eggs
April 3, 2008 - how many babies?
View Photos from the 2006 Owl Cam
For questions or comments, please contact Maggie,volunteer webmaster.