Species: Bubo scandiacus

Snowy Owl

Species

Birds

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Salish Sea-reliant birds

Terrestrial vertebrates: birds

Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

Classification

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Craniata

Class

Aves

Order

Strigiformes

Family

Strigidae

Genus

Bubo

NatureServe

Source:
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.103975

Classification

Other Global Common Names

harfang des neiges

Informal Taxonomy

Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Other Birds

Formal Taxonomy

Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Strigiformes - Strigidae - Bubo - (Sibley and Ahlquist 1990) and in fact is nested within the genus (Wink and Heidrich 1999). The specific name is an adjective and changes to agree with the gender of the generic name.

Ecology and Life History

Short General Description

A large owl.

Migration

true - true - true - Disperses from nesting areas after breeding; moves southward to areas where weather and food permit overwintering. Regular migrant in northern Great Plains of Canada. Irruptive southward migrations in western and eastern North America; some authors correlate southward movements with lemming population cycle, but Kerlinger et al. (1985) found no correlation. Arrives in northern Great Plains early November through late December or early January, departs late February and early March (some remain until late March) (Kerlinger and Lein 1988).

Non-migrant

true

Locally Migrant

true

Food Comments

Diet predominantly lemmings and voles; important alternate prey includes other rodents, rabbits, birds (e.g., waterfowl, Galliformes). Estimated that young consumes about 1500 lemmings between hatching and independence from parents.

Reproduction Comments

Eggs laying begins early to mid-May. Clutch size (usually 5-7) increases with prey abundance; sometimes >10. Incubation lasts 27-38 days, by female (male provides food). Young are tended by both parent, leave nest at 2-4 weeks, fly well by about 7 weeks, fed by parents after fledging. High mortality of young occurs when lemming abundance is low.

Ecology Comments

Breeding territory usually about 10 square km or less; may be less than 1 sq km in areas of high lemming density. Females may defend territories of 150-450 ha in winter (Johnsgard 1988). Local populations may vary ten-fold depending on lemming abundance.

Length

Weight

1963

Conservation Status

NatureServe Global Status Rank

Global Status Last Reviewed

2008-01-11

Global Status Last Changed

1996-11-27

Distribution

Conservation Status Map

Global Range

H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - Holarctic. Breeding range includes arctic tundras of the world: Aleutian Islands and northern Alaska, throughout Canadian Arctic Islands to northern Greenland, northern Scandinavia, northern Russia, southern Novaya Zemlya and northern Siberia south to the limits of tundra in Eurasia and the Commander Islands. Rarely in the British Isles (Cramp 1985). Snowy owls winter within breeding range if conditions allow; also south to southern Canada and northern United States, primarily in the northern Great Plains, but with occasional irruptive movements east, south, and west of there; and to Iceland, British Isles and central Europe, central Russia, northern China and Sakhalin. Accidental in northwest India, Japan, Bermuda, the Mediterranean and Iran (Parmelee 1992). Some evidence exists for winter site fidelity (Oeming 1957, Follen and Leupke 1980). Estimated global extent of occurrence is 1,000,000-10,000,000 square kilometers (BirdLife International 2005).

Global Range Code

Global Range Description

>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)

ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.103975