Hula Valley Webcam – Inside a Wild Barn Owl Nest Box

The Hula Valley Webcam looks inside a wild barn owl nest box in the Hula Valley, the farming basin in northern Israel where the streams that form the Jordan River meet. The camera points down at the floor of the box, a mat of feathers and old nest material, while a small window in the top-left corner shows the box from outside: a weathered box on a pole in long grass, with a solar panel on top and hills behind. The operator’s stream title names barn owl, common kestrel, rock pigeon and common myna as birds that use it, and the tenants change with the season. In early October 2026 a pair of rock pigeons was nesting inside. Barn owls in Israel lay in winter and early spring, so that is when owl chicks are most likely to appear.

About the Hula Valley

The Hula Valley is a flat basin about 70 meters (230 feet) above sea level in Israel’s Upper Galilee. It covers 177 square kilometers (68 square miles), roughly 25 kilometers (16 miles) long and 6 to 8 kilometers (4 to 5 miles) wide. Kiryat Shmona, Israel’s northernmost city, with 24,437 residents in 2024, sits on its western slopes. The Dan, Hasbani and Banias rivers and the el-Malaha brook all feed the valley.

Until the 1950s much of the valley floor was Lake Hula and its marshes. The lake was about 5.3 kilometers (3.3 miles) long and 4.4 kilometers (2.7 miles) wide, and the Jewish National Fund drained it between 1951 and 1958 to fight malaria and open new farmland. A remnant of the wetland became the Hula Nature Reserve in 1964, on 3.5 square kilometers (1.4 square miles), and it was listed as a Ramsar wetland in 1996. Heavy rain re-flooded part of the southern valley in the early 1990s, and that area became Agamon Hula, a lake of about 1 square kilometer (0.4 square miles). The Hula painted frog, thought extinct after the draining, turned up again in 2011.

The valley is also where Israel’s barn owl nest-box project began. In 1982, after poison laid for voles killed thousands of migrating birds, researchers proposed putting up boxes so barn owls could hunt the rodents instead, and by 2020 Israel had more than 5,000 boxes. The Charter Group of Wildlife Ecology, part of the Shamir Research Institute and the University of Haifa, monitors around 200 boxes holding 30 to 60 barn owl pairs a year and has cameras in a few of them. Barn owls have no sense of smell and never clean their nests, so the debris on the floor is normal. The team clears each box once a year.

Weather and Climate in the Hula Valley

Summers are long, hot and dry. From June to September average highs reach 34 to 36 C (93 to 97 F), nights stay around 20 to 22 C (68 to 72 F), and almost no rain falls. October is still warm at about 31 C (88 F) by day, and the first real rain arrives in November, when highs drop to around 25 C (77 F).

The valley gets about 576 millimeters (22.7 inches) of rain a year, nearly all of it between November and April. January is the wettest month, with highs near 17 C (63 F) and lows around 7 C (45 F), and spring warms quickly, from about 21 C (70 F) in March to 31 C (88 F) in May. Winter is also crane season: tens of thousands of cranes travelling between Finland and Ethiopia stop in the valley, part of an estimated 500 million migrating birds that pass through each year. Hundreds of thousands of white storks follow the same corridor each autumn on the way from eastern Europe to Africa, the route shown on our bird migration map.

Things to Do Near the Hula Valley

The Hula Nature Reserve protects the last of the old lake marsh, and Agamon Hula, developed by the Jewish National Fund as a rehabilitation project, is the second wetland on the valley floor. Kiryat Shmona, on the western slopes, is the nearest city for food, fuel and places to stay.

In the Upper Galilee, Tel Dan Nature Reserve protects about 49 hectares (120 acres) around the springs of the Dan River, beside the mound of the ancient city of Dan. The river is only about 20 kilometers (12 miles) long, yet it carries up to 238 million cubic meters (about 63 billion US gallons) of water a year into the valley. Tel Hai, now part of Kibbutz Kfar Giladi, has a monument to the battle fought there on 1 March 1920, which became one of the founding stories of Israeli culture.

Similar Webcams You Might Like

More nest boxes, and another view of the Jordan River, from the site:

• Florida Barn Owl Webcam
• Peak District Barn Owl Webcam
• Yardenit Webcam

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Hula Valley Webcam located?

The nest box is in the Hula Valley in Israel’s Upper Galilee, the basin that Kiryat Shmona overlooks from its western slopes. The operator names the valley but not the exact field, so the map pin marks the valley rather than the box itself.

What can you see on the Hula Valley Webcam?

The main camera looks down into the box and whichever birds are using it, and a small window in the top-left corner shows the box from outside, on a pole in long grass. The operator lists barn owl, common kestrel, rock pigeon and common myna among its visitors.

Does the webcam show the Hula Nature Reserve or Agamon Hula?

No. The camera is inside a nest box, and the small outside view shows only the box, the grass around it and hills in the distance. Neither the reserve’s wetland nor the lake at Agamon Hula is in frame, and the winter crane flocks are not part of the view.

When do barn owls nest in the Hula Valley?

Israeli barn owls breed in winter and spring. On the Charter Group’s cameras, first eggs have been laid between late December and late March, chicks hatch about a month later, and some pairs raise a second clutch. A pair fledges about five young on average, with a range of one to eleven.

Why are there barn owl boxes in the Hula Valley?

Farmers use barn owls instead of poison to control voles and other rodents. A pair with its chicks eats 2,000 to 6,000 rodents a year, and the project has cut harmful pesticide use in Israel by more than 50 percent.

What is the weather like in the Hula Valley?

Hot and dry from June to September, with average highs of 34 to 36 C (93 to 97 F), and mild and wet in winter, with January highs near 17 C (63 F). Nearly all of the 576 millimeters (22.7 inches) of yearly rain falls between November and April.

Are all the cameras on this page in the Hula Valley?

No, only the main player is. The tabs hold four more Charter Group cameras: two nest boxes in Even Yehuda, one on a rooftop and one on a wall, a little owl box that jackdaws nested in during 2026, and an Egyptian fruit bat roost at Tel Aviv University.

Source: Charter Group Birdcams