WBU Owl Cam!

Updated: April 20, 2023

This has been an unusual Owl Cam season and unfortunately, the eggs have not hatched. Mama Owl began taking longer breaks from the nest over the past couple of days and finally abandoned the box on April 19. This represents the first time in over a decade that the nesting location has failed to produce viable offspring.

In early March, we could already tell that things were shaping up a little differently than in years past. Mama laid the first egg on March 11, with a second egg coming on March 16 – a full five days later. She left the first egg un-incubated for most of the first two days at near-freezing temperatures. She finally settled into incubating the eggs full time around March 13-14th. This laying behavior was quite unusual compared to the consistent pattern we had seen in the Owl Box over the last decade, suggesting that this may have been a new or inexperienced female or pair.

We decided to keep the live stream cams running to see how the parents behave toward the eggs that did not hatch.

Jim Carpenter, Founder and CEO of Wild Birds Unlimited has had an owl box in his backyard since 1998. Owls have nested in his owl box almost every year for the past 16 years. Learn more about the history of the WBU Owl box here.

See below for highlights from last year's WBU Barred Owl Cam!