An owl of the daytime
In the Arctic summer it never gets dark, so the snowy owl hunts in daylight.
Arctic tundra
Snowy owl
Bubo scandiacus
A big white owl with yellow eyes. Males are almost pure white, and females have dark bars.
- Size
- Wingspan about 1.5m
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Open tundra all round the Arctic
Glides low after you, and settles to watch. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Snowy owl
Good to know
Six things about the snowy owl
Lemming counter
A snowy owl can eat more than 1,500 lemmings in a year. In good lemming years it raises more chicks.
Feathered slippers
Its legs and toes are covered in thick feathers, right down to the claws.
A nest on the ground
With no trees, it nests in a scrape on a low mound where it can see all round.
Whiter with age
Males grow whiter as they get older. Females keep their dark bars, which hide them on the nest.
A wanderer
Some winters, snowy owls fly far south. A few have reached Shetland and the Western Isles.
The real thing
Photos of the snowy owl
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Look for a white shape sitting on a rock or a hummock in open country. It often sits still for hours.
How to help
Snowy owls are now listed as vulnerable. Keep well back from any owl you find, so that it does not waste energy flying off.
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