Snowy Owl

Bubo scandiacus

Order STRIGIFORMES - Family STRIGIDAE

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

At the extreme northern margins of the arctic tundra lives the Snowy Owl, the northernmost, heaviest, and most distinctively marked owl of North America. Largely diurnal, it spends much of its time perched still and silent on prominent lookouts, waiting to make forays for prey.

Cool Facts

• Snowy Owl pairs fiercely defend their nests against predators, even wolves.
• An individual adult Snowy Owl may eat three to five lemmings per day, or up to 1,600 per year.

• The Snowy Owl can be found represented in cave paintings in Europe.

• In some years, some North American Snowy Owls remain on their breeding grounds year-round, while others migrate in winter to southern Canada and the northern half of the contiguous United States. In the northern plains, New York, and New England, Snowy Owls occur regularly in winter. Elsewhere, such as in the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, and eastern Canada, Snowy Owls are irruptive, appearing only in some winters but not in others.

• Young male Snowy Owls are barred with dark brown and get whiter as they get older. Females keep some dark markings throughout their lives. Young males tend to have a white bib, a white back of the head, and fewer rows of bars on the tail than females. Although the darkest males and the palest females are nearly alike in color, the whitest birds are always males and the most heavily barred ones are always females. Some old males can be nearly pure white.

Description

• Size: 52-71 cm (20-28 in)
• Wingspan: 126-145 cm (50-57 in)
• Weight: 1600-2950 g (56.48-104.14 ounces)

• Large, white owl.
• Some dark barring.

• Variable amounts of dark brown barring on head, wings, back, breast, and tail.
• Eyes yellow.
• Feet white and completely feathered.
• Bill black and mostly covered by feathers.

Sex Differences

Female slightly larger and more heavily barred. Male may be entirely white.

Immature

Immature like adult female. Male gets whiter as it ages.

Similar Species

• White-morph Gyrfalcon has smaller head, pointed wings, and long tail.
• Barn Owl is white below, but has a brown back and lacks barring.
• Albino Red-tailed Hawk lacks barring, has smaller head, and longer tail.

Sound

Generally silent in winter. Call a deep, powerful hoot. Also a series of harsh clicking.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds in high Arctic from coastal Alaska across Canada to Labrador. Also in northern Greenland, Scandinavia, and Russia.

Winter Range

Winters from breeding grounds southward to northern United States.

Habitat

Breeds on open tundra. Winters in fields and on beaches.

Food

Lemmings, when available. Also rabbits, rodents, waterfowl, other birds, and fish.

Behavior

Foraging

Waits on a perch until it locates prey, then pursues and seizes prey in its talons. Can also locate prey visually or by sound, even in dense grass or under thick layers of snow.

Displays

Male's territorial display includes booming hoots and threat postures, including puffing out their throats, raising their tails, and bowing deeply.

Reproduction

Nest Type

A scrape in the ground, formed into a rounded depression by the female.

Egg Description

White.

Clutch Size

3-11 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Covered in white down, eyes closed.

Conservation Status

Population sizes difficult to estimate because of size and remoteness of habitat. No information on long-term population changes, except an apparent decline in northern Europe.

Other Names

Harfang des neiges (French)

Sources used to construct this page:

1. American Ornithologists' Union. 2003. Forty-fourth supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. Auk 120: 923-931.
2. Parmelee, D. 1992. Snowy Owl (Nyctea scandiaca). In The Birds of North America, No. 10 (A. Poole, P. Stettenheim, and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, DC: The American Ornithologists' Union.