Dave motioned for quiet as we approached the nest box in his back yard. When he got to the spruce tree the box was attached to, he reached out and gently scratched the bark. The sound was nothing more than a whisper, just a hint- but immediately the Boreal Owl’s head poked out of the box and stared down at us with indignation. “Weasel check” said Dave.
Boreal Owls live in the Boreal forest of the far North, occasionally irrupting South. This, combined with the fact that they are owls, makes them a challenge for most birders to see. Slightly larger than a screech owl or Saw Whet, boreal owls hunt shrews and other small mammals. 