We have a lot of
birds at the World Bird Sanctuary, and most of them I know at least a little
about, but we have two Snowy Owls (Crystal and Ookpik) on our display line with
whom I’ve had little contact. So
in order to learn more, I decided to research and write about them.
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Crystal, our female Snowy Owl
The Snowy Owl is
the largest owl, by weight, in North America. They show up in the
northern U.S. in the winter, occasionally as far south as Missouri, such as the
Snowy Owl irruption experienced during the 2011-2012 winter. They spend their summers north of the
Arctic circle. Snowy Owls are
large and have a round smooth head, with no visible feather tufts.
They are white with varying amounts of black or brown. Generally the females have more dark
speckling and the males are more pale and become even more white as they age.
Often Snowy Owls
can be seen perched on or near the ground, in wide open spaces, on things like
crests of dunes, fence posts, telephone poles and hay bales. And when they do
fly they usually stay close to the ground.
During the winter
they spend their time around the shorelines of
lakes and oceans, but can also be found around agricultural fields and
airports. Snowy Owls breed in the arctic tundra where it is treeless, making their
nests on the ground.
Some other names
for the Snowy Owl are Snow Owl, Arctic Owl, Great White Owl, Ghost Owl, Ermine
Owl, Tundra Ghost, Ookpik, Scandinavian Nightbird, and White Terror of the
North.
Ookpik, our male Snowy Owl
Most of their
hunting is done "sit and wait" style. These owls are diurnal, which means they are awake and hunt during the day, but they will sometimes hunt at
night. Snowy owls will capture
their prey on the ground, in the air or snatched
off the surface of the water. Snowy Owls will prey on a very wide variety
of small mammals, but they are opportunistic feeders, which means they will eat
just about anything. They will
prey on hares, muskrats, marmots, squirrels, rabbits, prairie dogs, rats,
moles, and entrapped furbearers, ptarmigan, ducks, geese, shorebirds, ring-necked
pheasants, grouse, American Coots, grebes, gulls, songbirds and Short-eared Owls. Snowy Owls will also eat fish and
carrion.
In the wild, Snowy Owls
can live about 9 years; but in captivity they can live about 35 years. They
have very few natural enemies. Arctic Foxes and wolves prey on Snowy Owls,
their eggs and chicks while the birds are on their
breeding grounds, and Skuas and Jaegers, which are gulls that prey on more than
just fish, may take eggs or chicks.
If you’ve never
seen one of these beautiful birds be sure to look for Ookpik and Crystal on our
display line the next time you visit the World Bird Sanctuary.
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