Florida Barn Owl Webcam – Inside Two Wild Nest Boxes

The Florida Barn Owl Webcam looks inside a wild barn owl nest box near Moore Haven, on the southwest shore of Lake Okeechobee, and a second tab switches to another Florida box from the same research project. The camera is mounted inside the box itself, close enough to follow the eggs, the pellets the owls cough up and whatever prey the adults carry in. The owls are wild and come and go as they please, which means the view can change from an empty box to a brooding female in one evening. Between nesting attempts the box can sit empty for weeks, while the stream keeps running and the owls return on their own schedule.

About the Florida Barn Owl Nest Boxes

The cameras are run by the Charter Group of Wildlife Ecology, the research team of Dr. Motti Charter at the Shamir Research Institute and the University of Haifa’s Department of Geography and Environmental Studies in Israel, in cooperation with the University of Florida. The Florida boxes hold the American barn owl, the New World form of the species that UF/IFAS extension material lists as Tyto alba. The adults are not banded, so the operator cannot confirm that the same pair returns each year, although it named the 2022 pairs: Dovey and Lovey in the Cam 1 box, Nakni and Tayki in Cam 2.

Moore Haven is the county seat of Glades County. It was founded in 1915 by James A. Moore, incorporated in 1917, and counted 1,566 residents in the 2020 census. The town sits just 4 meters (13 feet) above sea level, and the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 drove a storm surge off the lake that wrecked much of it. South of the lake, barn owl boxes are a working tool on farms. The Everglades Agricultural Area covers about 283,000 hectares (700,000 acres) of farmland, 186,000 hectares (460,000 acres) of it in sugarcane, and rodents do more than $30 million of damage to that crop each year. The UF/IFAS Everglades Research and Education Center in Belle Glade counted 233 boxes in Palm Beach County by spring 2005 and has banded 286 owls, 89 adults and 197 nestlings.

The breeding records on the stream are what make these boxes worth following. Barn owls in this part of Florida do not keep to one season. The Cam 1 box has held clutches that began in January, March, September, November and December, and in 2025 the pair abandoned a first clutch in November and laid a second one in late December that hatched four chicks between January 28 and February 4, 2026, three of which survived. The Cam 2 box laid seven eggs in September 2023, five in November 2024, and five more between September 13 and 22, 2026. The records show eggs laid every two or three days and hatching about 31 to 34 days later, so the chicks in one brood differ visibly in size and the youngest are often lost when food runs short.

Weather and Climate in Moore Haven

Moore Haven has a warm, wet subtropical climate. July averages a high of 33.4 C (92.1 F) and a low of 21.7 C (71.0 F), and most of the year’s 1,235 millimeters (48.62 inches) of rain falls in the wet season from June through September, often in afternoon thunderstorms. Those months also sit inside the Atlantic hurricane season. Summer is the quietest stretch in the nest box records, with no clutch started between April and August.

Winter is dry and mild. January averages 23.5 C (74.3 F) by day and 10.1 C (50.1 F) at night, and that cool, dry stretch lines up with many of the clutches on record, from November through February. Autumn nesting is common too: the Cam 2 records hold four September clutches. Because the owls hunt at night, the most active hours on the Florida Barn Owl Webcam are after sunset, when adults drop in with prey and the owlets call for food.

Things to Do Near Moore Haven

The Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail has two access points in Moore Haven and follows the levee around the lake, the easiest way to get a view of open water from town. The Moore Haven Downtown Historic District, listed in 1995, covers the historic center that grew up after James A. Moore platted the town, and the Mamie Langdale Memorial Bridge dates from 2000.

Time a visit for the first weekend in March and the Chalo Nitka Festival is on, the town’s annual festival. Clewiston, which gives its name to the surrounding micropolitan area, sits a short drive southeast along the lake’s south shore, on the edge of the sugarcane country where so many of Florida’s barn owl boxes stand.

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• Hula Nature Reserve Webcam
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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Florida Barn Owl Webcam located?

The Cam 1 nest box is near Moore Haven, the county seat of Glades County, on the southwest shore of Lake Okeechobee in south central Florida. The Cam 2 tab shows a second box in Florida from the same University of Florida and Charter Group project.

What can you see on the Florida Barn Owl Webcam?

The inside of a wild barn owl nest box. In season that means eggs, a brooding female, prey carried in by the male and owlets growing from hatchlings to fully feathered young.

Why is the Florida Barn Owl Webcam nest box empty?

The owls are wild and use the box only when they are nesting or roosting. Once the young fledge, the family leaves, and the box can stay empty for weeks or months until a pair lays again. The stream keeps running the whole time, and the owls come back by themselves, often in autumn or winter.

When do barn owls nest in Florida?

Mostly in autumn and winter. Across the two boxes, clutches have started between September and March, with none begun from April through August. The Cam 2 box laid five eggs between September 13 and 22, 2026, and past records put hatching about 31 to 34 days after laying.

How many eggs does a barn owl lay?

Clutches on these cams have ranged from two to seven eggs, laid two or three days apart, and hatching follows the same spacing.

Why does the barn owl nest box look dirty?

Barn owls have no sense of smell, bring whole prey into the nest and cough up pellets of fur and bone, and they never clean the nest. The operator cleans each box once a year, since more frequent cleaning risks the pair abandoning it.

What is the weather like in Moore Haven?

Hot and wet in summer, with July highs of 33.4 C (92.1 F) and a rainy season from June through September. Winter is dry and mild, with January averaging 23.5 C (74.3 F) by day and 10.1 C (50.1 F) at night.

Source: Charter Group Birdcams