NIOC BARN OWL NESTBOX SCHEME

Since 1993 the NIOC have been operating a Barn Owl Nestbox Scheme to try and halt the decline in Northern Ireland of this stunningly beautiful bird.

Plastic barrel nestboxes had been used successfully around the edges of the forests in Dumfries and Galloway and so it was decided to try this method to increase the number of suitable nest sites in the province.
With the generous assistance of Tennents Textile Colours of Belfast and also the DOE NI, strapping, strap tensioners, tools and 200 plastic barrels were obtained and the project had begun.
Gary Wilkinson and a team of volunteers have so far manufactured and erected sixty six nestboxes in all six counties.  The two most recent nestboxes to be erected are at Kilmore Co. Down where a Barn Owl was heard calling when the nestbox was being put in position, and the Quoile area in Co. Down where there is a history of sightings and some good habitat still remains.
Most of the sites are on privately owned farms where access is only by permission from the landowners.

Before any nest boxes are erected the site is evaluated for suitability and the following criteria are used :-

•  Previous history and recent sightings of Barn Owl.
  Suitable and sufficient habitat for the birds.
  Insufficient suitable nesting sites in the area.

It is difficult to measure accurately the overall success of the scheme, but the NIOC believes that Northern Irelands population of Barn Owls has increased from the dangerously low level of around thirty pairs in 1992 to around sixty pairs at the beginning of 2001.