At least one study has shown that these owls may bring live Blind Snakes to the nest to live in the nest debris and eat insects. This cohabitation seems to benefit the fledglings. The study shows that young in nests that contained the snakes had a lower mortality rate than young in nests without these snakes.

Screech-owl pairs are normally monogamous and remain together for life. Mated pairs may preen each other’s feathers and call together in a duet.