this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2024
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For owls that are superb.

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We ventured to the garden store to get some fall decor, and they had a wide assortment of owl merch.

This birdhouse was the first to catch my eye. It was next to some nice looking birdhouses made of different colored Trex type material. I wonder what the heat retention of Trex is compared to wood. They would certainly last longer and be easier to clean.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Would that work, though? Wouldn’t the birds be afraid of the “owl”?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

They figure it out after a bit of time of them not moving.

Do Fake Owls and Other Decoys Work?

A study by Linfield College found that songbirds are afraid of owl decoys. Researchers swapped out owl decoys for a cardboard box of the same size in an oak woodland within Oregon's Willamette Valley. Then they measured how often birds visited feeders in the vicinity of the objects and found they were much less likely to go near the feeder when the owl decoy was stationed nearby; however, they weren't scared one bit by the cardboard box. The birds did wise up over time, though. After a few days, they realized the owl was fake and returned to the feeder.