Where Do Barn Owls Nest? Barns, Old Trees and Nest Boxes

Where: Hollow trees, old barns and big nest boxes on farmland
Nest: None built: eggs go on the debris in the cavity
When: First eggs usually April or May
Eggs: Usually 4 to 6, kept warm by the female for about a month
Broods: One, sometimes two in a good vole year
Fledging: About 8 weeks after hatching
Protection: Schedule 1: disturbing the nest needs a licence

Where barn owls nest

A barn owl needs a big, dark, dry hole, and it needs it close to rough grass, because that is where the field voles it lives on are. Traditionally that meant a hollow in an old oak or ash in a hedgerow, or a ledge or loft in a barn, which is how it got its name.

Old trees fall and old barns get converted, and nest boxes have filled the gap. The BTO reckons well over a quarter of the UK’s barn owls now nest in boxes. That makes it one of the few birds whose recovery owes a lot to people putting up boxes.

What a barn owl’s nest looks like

There isn’t really one. Barn owls bring in no material at all. The female lays straight onto whatever is in the bottom of the cavity, which after a few years of use is mostly a layer of old pellets, the balls of fur and bone the owls cough up. They will not lay on bare wood or plastic, which is why a new box needs a layer of wood chips in the bottom.

When barn owls nest

Most first eggs are laid in April or May, though it can be from late March to early July. Everything depends on voles: in a good year a pair may raise a second brood, and in a bad one they may nest late or not at all.

The eggs are laid a couple of days apart and the female starts sitting on the first one, so they hatch in turn too. The chicks in one nest can be up to two weeks apart in age. When food is short, the youngest go hungry first. The female sits for around 32 days, and the chicks take about eight weeks to fly.

How to help barn owls

A barn owl box in an ordinary garden will not get used. They belong on farmland. But if you have, or know someone with, land next to rough grass, a box can make a real difference.

Put the box in the right place. On a farm building, a big hedgerow tree or a pole, 3 to 5 metres up, looking out over open rough grassland. The RSPB suggests putting them up in pairs and keeping them at least a kilometre from major roads, where young owls get killed.
Leave rough grass. Grass margins left uncut along field edges, a few metres wide, are where the voles live. No voles, no owls.
Go easy on rat poison. Owls eat poisoned rodents and are poisoned in turn.
Do not look in. Barn owls are on Schedule 1, so only licence holders can check an occupied box. Clean boxes out between November and January.

Checked against: RSPB: Barn owl, BTO BirdFacts: Barn owl, BTO barn owl nest box plan. Last checked 8 November 2026.

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Your turn: find the robins a nest

One nest in every row, every column and every colour, and no two nests touching, not even at a corner. Tap a square once to cross it off. Double tap to place a nest.

Good to know

Questions

Do barn owls nest in barns?

Yes, in old farm buildings with a ledge or loft and a way in, as well as in hollow trees and nest boxes. Converted or sealed-up barns are no use to them.

When do barn owls lay eggs?

Usually in April or May. In a year with plenty of voles some pairs raise a second brood later in the summer.

Can I put a barn owl box in my garden?

Only if your garden backs onto open rough grassland. Barn owls hunt over fields, so a box in a town or suburban garden will almost certainly stay empty.

How many eggs do barn owls lay?

Usually four to six, laid a couple of days apart, so the chicks hatch at different times.

Is it illegal to disturb a barn owl’s nest?

Yes. Barn owls are on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, so disturbing one at or near its nest without a licence is an offence.