Barn Owl Nest at the University of Haifa — Live Webcam
University of Haifa — a campus where owls live alongside people
Haifa is a port city on the slopes of Mount Carmel, the third largest in Israel with a population of about 280,000 people. Here, on the Mediterranean coast, sits the University of Haifa — the largest scientific center in the north of the country, founded in 1963. But besides students and researchers, the campus has also welcomed other inhabitants — a pair of barn owls that chose an artificial nest box right on the university grounds. Today, this live camera allows anyone interested in urban wildlife to observe their lives.
Barn Owl: the night hunter with a heart-shaped face
The barn owl (Tyto alba) is one of the most recognizable owls in the world, thanks to its distinctive heart-shaped facial disc and golden-white plumage with dark spots. Unlike many other owls, barn owls hunt primarily in complete darkness, using exceptional hearing — their asymmetrically positioned ears allow them to precisely locate the rustle of a rodent even under a layer of leaves or snow. In Haifa, the barn owl's diet consists mainly of mice, rats, and small birds, including pigeons. In Israel's coastal cities, the menu can even include seabirds and jirds (Tristram's jird), which the female brings to the chicks right in the nest.
How the nest on campus is arranged
In urban environments, barn owls lack natural shelters — hollow trees, attics of old buildings, rock crevices. That's why artificial nest boxes have become a real salvation for them. On the University of Haifa campus, exactly such a box is installed — a wooden house with a spacious chamber inside, where HD cameras are placed. The pair of birds, known to viewers by the names Guintas and Yasmin, lives here and raises their brood under continuous observation. The nest is lined with twigs, feathers, and bedding that the birds gather themselves.
Biological Pest Control Program
The installation of nest boxes for barn owls in Israel is no accident, but part of a large-scale scientific program. The Charter Group of Wildlife Ecology, led by Dr. Motti Charter from the University of Haifa, began this work back in 1983 at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in the Beit She'an Valley. The idea is simple: one pair of barn owls catches up to 2,000–3,000 rodents per season, making them an ideal biological pest control tool on agricultural lands and in urban environments. By 2007, the number of installed boxes had grown from 14 to 300, with an average occupancy rate of about 80%. The camera in the University of Haifa nest is part of this same network, uniting science, education, and nature conservation.
Pigeon Neighbor: an unexpected symbiosis in the nest
One of the most unusual details of this broadcast is the feral pigeon that regularly appears right in the barn owl's nest. With its characteristic dark wing pattern and gray breast, it calmly stands next to the pink featherless chicks while the female barn owl broods them. Such cohabitation seems strange at first glance — after all, the barn owl is quite capable of hunting pigeons. However, in the confined space of the nest box, the birds seem to have found some kind of fragile balance. Webcam viewers often discuss this duo in the comments — the pigeon has become an unofficial star of the broadcast.
Haifa and Mount Carmel: the natural context
The University of Haifa is located on the slope of Mount Carmel — a nature reserve stretching along the Mediterranean coast. It is a biogeographical crossroads where Mediterranean forests, shrub thickets, and open spaces meet — ideal hunting territory for barn owls. The city of Haifa, with its ports, industrial zones, and green terraces, creates a mosaic landscape in which wild animals are forced to adapt to living alongside people. The barn owl nest at the university is a vivid example of how the urban environment can become a refuge for birds of prey if suitable conditions are created for them.
How to watch the nest: live webcam
The broadcast from the barn owl nest runs around the clock — the webcam operates 24/7, allowing you to peek into the life of the nest box at any time. HD cameras are installed inside, one of which provides a top-down view, giving a good overview of the entire nest space. Below the broadcast, an observation log is maintained — volunteer viewers record feedings, parent changes, weather anomalies, and other events. This turns simple viewing into a civic science project: everyone who watches the broadcast can contribute to understanding the behavior of barn owls in Haifa's urban environment.
What you can see on the camera
The camera shows the inside of a wooden nest box. In the center of the frame sits an adult barn owl with a characteristic heart-shaped face and golden-white plumage, beneath it — several pink featherless chicks. Nearby on the bedding of twigs and feathers often stands a feral pigeon with a dark wing pattern. The female periodically flies off to hunt and returns with prey — rodents or small birds, which she feeds to the chicks. The camera shows all this in real time, without editing or delays — the real life of an urban barn owl in Haifa, available to every viewer.
