Bubo scandiacus

Snowy Owl, also known as Snowy Owl in English, is a bird of prey with no subspecies.

The snowy owl is the provincial bird of Quebec, Canada, and the image of the snowy owl is also on the 50 Canadian dollar note issued in 1986; the main pattern of the coat of arms of former Canadian Governor General Jules Leger is also a snowy owl. The owl image in the online slang ORLY is a snowy owl. The Snowy Owl may be the oldest bird identifiable in prehistoric cave paintings in Europe.

The Snowy Owl is a winter migratory bird, wandering to Europe, North America, Central Asia, Korea, Japan, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang and other places in China in winter. At this time, the female bird will settle in one place and divide the territory, and will defend the territory to prevent outsiders from invading until they leave here and migrate north in spring.

The Snowy Owl mainly feeds on small mammals common in the Arctic, mainly including lemmings and young rock ptarmigan. When food is scarce, it will wander to other areas to eat other rodents, pheasants, geese and ducks, and snow hares. They also prey on a variety of small mammals, such as prairie voles and deer mice, and often use large prey to find more food along the trap route. The large mammals they prey on include hares, muskrats, marmots, squirrels, prairie dogs, mice, moles, dogs, foxes, and other fur animals. Birds include rock ptarmigan, ducks, geese, waders, pheasants, grouse, coots, gulls, songbirds, and short-eared owls. They also eat fish and carrion. When they catch a snowshoe hare, they grab the hare's back and smack it until the hare is exhausted, then they break the hare's neck with their beaks. If there is any prey left, they store the rest on nearby branches. Each snowy owl will eat 7-12 mice per day and consume 1,600 lemmings per year. They choose to perch high up on branches so that they can have a good view. Their eyes cannot move, but their heads can rotate up to 270 degrees, giving them a good view of their hunting area. They often wait for prey in a crouching position, and then use their sharp claws to quickly grab the prey on the ground, in the air, or on the water. When they locate a prey by sight or hearing, they will quickly chase it and grab it with their claws. Snowy owls have extremely sensitive vision because their eyes contain more light-gathering cells than human eyes, which can observe small objects at very far distances. It is their excellent vision that gives them a strong ability to judge distance, which is very important in hunting. Their hearing is also very sensitive. Even in dense grass or under heavy ice and snow, they can hunt by sound alone. They have such sensitive hearing because the feathers around the eye sockets are arranged vertically and side by side in a ring, and these feathers can just reflect sound waves into the ear holes directly behind the eyes. It is their sensitive hearing that allows them to detect the traces of prey in dim environments.

Snowy owls often swallow their prey whole, and spit out the indigestible parts as saliva 18-24 hours later. They often spit out saliva in fixed locations, and the amount of saliva is large. By analyzing the debris in the saliva, we can accurately understand their feeding habits. When large prey is torn into small pieces and eaten, saliva will not be produced.

Snowy owls play a very important role in the food web of tundra ecosystems, and in the southern part of their distribution range, they play an important role in controlling rodents in agricultural areas. Their harsh living environment often causes food shortages, but they are very adaptable and can migrate to areas with sufficient food sources. The population of snowy owls fluctuates greatly, mainly related to the number of rock ptarmigan and voles. For example, on Banks Island in Canada, the number of snowy owls on the island can reach 15,000-20,000 in years with abundant food, and only 2,000 in years with scarce food.

The calls of snowy owls vary, but they are very quiet outside the breeding season. The usual call is a deep, repeated gawh sound. During the breeding season, male birds often make a "whoo-whoo-" call to court or to notify intruders; when attacking, they will make a guttural sound of krufff-guh-guh-guk; when excited, they will make a "whoo- ... The male bird's warning call is very distinctive, a hoarse krek-krek sound, while the female bird's call is softer, a low pyee-pyee or prek-prek, and a seeuee whistle sound when warning. Male birds call more frequently than female birds, and female birds rarely call and appear to be quieter. When faced with threats or harassment, they will make a sound by hitting their beaks, but this sound is more likely to be made by the tongue hitting the beak. Chicks under 2 weeks old can only make squeaks, and after 2 years old, they can make hisses and screams.

Although the snowy owl has few natural enemies, the adult snowy owls are always on guard and are prepared to defend against anything that may threaten them or their children. Snowy owls are quiet and even timid outside the breeding season, but once they enter the breeding season, they will be very rude to intruders. During the breeding season, they often face Arctic foxes, skuas, as well as dogs, wolves and other bird predators, with humans being their most dangerous predators. Territorial behavior of male snowy owls includes barking, flailing, raising the tail and hunching over, ready to dive. They are very careful to guard their eggs and never leave them unattended. The male snowy owl will guard the egg-laying site while the female incubates the eggs and cares for the chicks. Both males and females will attack the enemy, using dives or distractions to drive the enemy away to protect the eggs. When faced with other male snowy owls that intrude into their territory, the male owner will make exaggerated gestures to drive away the intruder. They also compete with a number of predators for rock ptarmigan and other prey, including rough-footed buzzards, great horned owls, golden eagles, peregrine falcons, gyrfalcons, skuas, arctic gulls, short-eared owls, ravens, wolves, Arctic foxes and stoats. Because snowy owls often drive predators out of their territory, species such as snow geese that build nests near them also benefit from this.

Unlike many owls, snowy owls are diurnal birds in many areas, active during the day and resting at night, occasionally hunting after dusk. They fly smoothly and powerfully, with strong dives and fast takeoff speeds. They can fly short distances close to the ground and will occasionally land on the ground or poles to rest. In hot weather, snowy owls cool down by exhaling and spreading their wings. They spend most of their time roosting in places with wide views, such as fences, haystacks, trees, buildings, and telephone poles, keeping a close eye on other intruders or waiting for an opportunity to quietly catch their prey from behind.

Because snowy owls are active entirely during the day, they also have aerobatic performances that other owls do not have when they are courting. The courtship performance of snowy owls is complex and exquisite, consisting of two parts: aerial performance and ground performance. The courtship performance begins with an aerial performance. First, the male snowy owl will hold a rock ptarmigan with its beak or claws, and fly up and down continuously, then continue to climb, and finally end with an elegant vertical landing. After landing, the male snowy owl will perform a ground performance. First, it will stand upright with its back to the female snowy owl, then lower its head, tilt its body toward the ground, and its tail feathers will be fan-shaped and not fully spread, and the whole body will almost stick to the ground. Another common performance is that the male snowy owl passes the rock ptarmigan to the female snowy owl while flying in the air; the male snowy owl will show the stored prey to the female snowy owl, and often feed the food to the female.

The snowy owl lives in a very harsh environment, so its reproduction is not as regular as other birds. It is often affected by the food supply. If food is extremely scarce, it may not reproduce for many years. When food is sufficient, it reproduces once a year. When snowy owls migrate in groups, some individuals will still stay at the breeding site.

The age at which snowy owls reach sexual maturity is still unknown, but it is generally believed that it takes at least two years for them to reach sexual maturity. Snowy owls are monogamous for life, but when food is extremely sufficient, they may also be polygamous. Snowy owls usually start migrating in February or March and arrive at the breeding site in late April to early May. Breeding partners are formed during the wintering process or after arriving at the breeding site. During migration, snowy owls will move in pairs or small groups. At this time, up to 20 snowy owls can be seen within a few hundred square meters.

The male bird will establish its own territory, and the female bird will choose the egg-laying site, which is usually a snow-free site with a wide view. In the high-latitude Arctic region, snowy owls will choose sites with grasses, lichens and some dwarf trees such as birch, saxifrage, and heather as nest sites, while in the low-latitude Arctic region, they will choose meadows with dense dome-shaped dwarf shrubs. Female birds do not build nests, but settle on the windward side of hillocks or boulders, often looking for ground depressions in tundra highlands or low-lying areas at the base of rocks, or digging holes on the ground to lay eggs, sometimes covering them with some plant materials or feathers, and occasionally choosing sand piles or abandoned eagle nests. They generally do not breed in fixed locations, but in some places, a pair of snowy owls may breed in the same location for many years. Snowy owls divide their territories into 1-2 square kilometers centered on the egg-laying site, which often overlaps with the territories of other snowy owls. Intruders within 1 kilometer of the egg-laying site may be attacked violently.

The breeding season of snowy owls is from May to August. When they start laying eggs, the snow has not completely melted. They usually nest on the ground of the tundra, especially on drier hillsides. The nest is just a pit dug out on the ground, or directly uses a natural pit on the ground. Each nest usually has 4 eggs, sometimes as many as 11, even 13, and sometimes as few as 3. The number of eggs in a nest varies greatly, but it is usually consistent with the growth cycle of the number of lemmings in the Arctic. The eggs are white and oval. They begin to incubate after the first egg is laid. Usually, the female bird takes care of it alone, and the male bird guards near the nest and supplies food for the female bird. The incubation period is 32-34 days.

The male will hunt and bring food to the female, who will then divide the food into small pieces and remove the bones and feathers, feeding the chicks pure meat. If there is not enough food, the larger snowy owl chicks will grab the food first, and the smaller chicks will die of hunger over time, so that the amount of food will meet the needs of the chicks in the nest. The chicks will begin to grow feathers and leave the nest 14-26 days after birth, but they cannot fly at this time and can only wander around the nest. The parents will continue to feed them, and the chicks will consume 2 rock ptarmigan every day. A family of 9 snowy owls can consume up to 1,500 adult rock ptarmigans a year before the chicks become independent, which is equivalent to 120 kilograms of food. Generally, they can hunt for food by themselves after 5-7 weeks. The chicks are late-maturing and can fly after about 51-57 days of being fed by the parents. The short Arctic summer is coming to an end, and they are about to start their first migration.

The biggest threat to snowy owls is the impact of human activities on their living environment. Their main cause of death is collisions with power lines, fences, and cars, and people sometimes kill snowy owls for their meat, as souvenirs, or to protect hunted animals. Canadian provinces and territories where snowy owls are widely distributed have enacted regulations prohibiting the killing of snowy owls nationwide.

Listed in the 2017 Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) ver 3.1 - Vulnerable (VU).

Listed as a Class I protected animal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of the United Nations (UN) CITES.  

It was listed in the list of China's second-level key protected wild animals in 1989.

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Snowy owls are found in Canada, China, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Norway, the Russian Federation, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the Valbard Islands and Jan Mayen Island, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Migrant birds: Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bermuda, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, South Korea, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, Mongolia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine.
Snowy owls mainly inhabit the Arctic tundra, tundra hills, coasts, and adjacent wastelands and swamps in summer, and in tundra forests, plains, wilderness, and forests in winter, especially in open sparse woodlands. They have also been seen in coniferous forests above 3,000 meters above sea level. It is an owl that moves and forages almost entirely during the day, because the Arctic is daylight 24 hours a day in the summer.

It is a larger owl, with a body length of about 50-71 cm. The average female body length is 66 cm, and the average male body length is 59 cm. The male size is significantly smaller than the female; because this species is distributed in high latitudes and high altitudes In cold areas, the whole body is almost pure white, and the tips of the body feathers are almost black. The snowy owl has a round and small head, an inconspicuous facial disk, and no ear-shaped feather clusters common in other owls. The base of the bill is covered with bristly whisker-like feathers. , almost covering the whole mouth. The male bird is all white, with slightly light brown eyes and face mixed with a few dark brown spots. The base of the neck has inconspicuous white horizontal spots with a few brown spots; the waist also has a few brown spots. Primary flight feathers have horizontal spots. Starting from the 3rd feather, the transverse spots on the outer feathers increase, and the inner feathers only have 1-