The Snowy Owl

Owls are some of the most well known birds in the world. Everyone loves them, and they get really excited if they see one. Maybe it's something about their creepy hoots and nocturnal lifestyle, making it seem almost like they are magical. Maybe it's because owls look sort of like us, but large, flat faces with big eyes. Or maybe it’s because they can turn their heads all the way around and do things normal birds can’t. Whatever it is, owls seem to fascinate us. But by far the most loved and sought-after owl is the Snowy Owl.

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Welcome to Bird of the Day. My name is Sam Rogers, and I'm a 13-year-old birder from Eugene, Oregon. This is an informative, entertaining podcast about anything and everything birds. You're listening to episode 12, all about the snowy owl. Owls are some of the most well-known birds in the world. Everyone loves them, and they get really excited when they see one. Maybe it's something about their creepy hoots and nocturnal lifestyle, making it seem almost like they're magical. Maybe it's because owls sort of look like us, with large flat faces and big eyes. Or maybe it's because they can turn their heads all the way around and do things normal birds can't. Whatever it is, owls seem to fascinate us. But by far the most loved and sought after owl is the snowy owl. Who knows why, but this is among the most famous birds in the world. These birds might seem mysterious, but we actually know a lot about them. Therefore, this will be a longer episode, so get comfortable and enjoy the world of the snowy owl. Both males and females have black barring on their feathers too, but females have more. The amount of black on a snowy owl can vary a lot, actually, from almost none on adult males to immature females, which can be almost totally covered in black bars. Most birds fall in between. Snowy owls are big, about the size of a hawk, with broad wings and a short tail. They have a big rounded head with horns? Yes, snowy owls actually have horns. Don't worry, these aren't real horns, just fluffy tufts of feathers that stick out of the head. Now for your fun fact inside of a fun fact, the real name for the horns that owls have is plumic horns. Fantastical, I know, but that's what they're called. Anyway, snowy owls actually have small little tufts. However, these owls have such fluffy heads that these tufts are virtually invisible. You might think that an owl's head is shaped much like a human head, because they look the same, but that's not the case. In fact, most birds, especially owls, are mostly feathers. The real shape of a bird's body is much more like what you would imagine a baby chicken would look like. Just imagine a very, very young bird, one that is still in a nest, and then just give it a beak and make it a lot bigger, and you have a bird without feathers. Owls' heads are really just the same as a normal bird head, just a little different. I'll put some pictures of owl heads in the show notes for this episode on the podcast website, bird of the daypodcast.com. And now let's learn what the snowy owl is related to, where they live, and what they sound like. The snowy owl is in the family Strididae, of the typical owls. The reason these are typical is because there's another family of owls, a treacherous family. This is the family Titanidae, the barn owls. This is a slightly distinct family, but it's actually pretty similar. Anyway, of the two families, the snowy owl is a member of Stridy. It is closely related to some other owl species you might know, like the great horned owl, Eurasian eagle owl, or spectacled owl from South America. This is the only white owl in its whole family though. No owl even comes close to the whiteness of a snowy owl. There are some owls that share its habitat though. In the far northern tundra, where it is very snowy for most of the year, there are a few owl species you might encounter. The smaller northern hawk owl and boreal owl live in the boreal forest and are not likely to be confused. Great grey owls are large too, but they only live in forests and are not white. The short eared owl will actually breed in the tundra too, like the snowy, but it is not white and flies much more like a kite or a giant floppy swallow than a snowy owl. So if you are in the far north and see a large white owl on the open tundra, it's definitely a snowy owl. We'll talk more about habitat and range later though. You probably know that owls hoot. Many owls around the world will make their deep, haunting calls at night. Snowy owls hoot too, but they also make many other noises, like grunts, whistles, barks, screams, and even twitters. This is a low, gruff call from a snowy owl in Finland. If threatened, adults, and sometimes chicks, will do bill snapping. This is made by the bird opening and closing its bill very quickly. It sounds like this. So if you hear that, you know you've really annoyed that owl, and you should probably run. In the far northern Arctic, there's almost continuous daylight, so snowy owls will hoot at all times of the day. Now, if you are looking for snowy owls, where would you look? Well, snowy owls are denizens of the Arctic. They live almost entirely on the tundra. This is a pretty desolate landscape, with nothing but grassy earth and snow. The snowy owl breeds in the far northern reaches of Canada, Russia, and Scandinavia. This species is called circumpolar. That means it lives all the way around the polar region. Circum is related to circle, and polar means near the poles. Some other circumpolar species include the Lapland longspur, common eider, and glaucus gull. In winter, the snowy owl comes farther south, down into the far northern US in North America, and Central Russia in Eurasia. Now before you start pouting because you live farther south than that line, don't worry, you could still see a snowy owl. You see, some years these owls will come much farther south than normal. This is called an eruption. Not eruption like a volcano, but eruption with an eye. Many birds do this, like finches, jays, and nuthatches. The way it works is that during a certain winter, sometimes a random winter, thousands of birds will come farther south than their normal wintering grounds. Different birds eat from different trees or plants, and if some plant does not do well in a given year or in a given location, all birds that rely on that plant in that location will come south to look for a new food. This is how it works for most birds, so it was thought that the same thing happened with snowy owls. There weren't enough lemmings in the Arctic to support the owls, and so they came down south to find food. This idea of the owls are starving went around for a while, before new research debunked it. Instead of there being too little lemmings, there were actually too many owls. Following a year with a lot of lemmings, so many chicks would hatch that there wouldn't be enough space up there for all the owls. So many juvenile birds that didn't have territories came south. This means that birders from California to Florida might get a chance to see a snowy owl. In fact, this past winter was an eruption year. Hundreds of owls were seen all over the US, even a few in my home state of Oregon. I was very lucky to get a chance to see one this February. We had a short window between events, and so me and my dad decided to drive out to the Oregon coast to see a bird that had been seen recently on the beach. We arrived at the area and I was nervous. I hoped I would see this owl, but you never know. As we walked out, I noticed a familiar shape on a piece of driftwood. There it was, a snowy owl. I had only been there for about five seconds, but it was an unmistakable bird. Soon after it flew past us and landed on a dune where it sat for a while. We got really, really good views, and I think this is one of the coolest birds I've ever seen. Did you get to see one too? If not, you never know. Maybe this year we'll see another snowy owl eruption. Snowy owls are definitely deep in the carnivore category. In summer, they mainly eat lemmings and other small rodents, with a few exceptions. But in winter it gets variable. Snowy owls will eat just about anything with meat on it, like ducks, geese, shorebirds, amphibians, rodents, and even other mammals. Most owls are supremely good hunters, being able to catch small rodents even when they're buried under many feet of snow. They have a few ways to do this. First, the owl will find a high perch that overlooks a grassy area where a mouse might be hiding. Then they'll listen. From what I can gather, I don't think that snowy owls use their ears to listen for prey, as many other owls do. Instead, they mostly use sight. Once an owl has found something worth hunting, it will stick its head out, trying to get a better view. Then, when it sees an opportunity, it pounces. Normally, the owl will just swoop or fly in towards the animal and either pounce on top of it or grab it in its talons while still in flight. However, this bird is very opportunistic, and it will eat many things. Snowy owls have been seen catching ducks that native Eskimo hunters had shot down, or even patrolling along a telephone wire to eat shorebirds that had hit it. Some owls have even been observed hunting fish by catching them out of the water. The owl will fly over the water and then, at the sight of a fish, dive down and catch it straight out of the water, much like an osprey or eagle. So no matter what animal you are, you aren't safe in a snowy owl's territory. Once a pair of owls has found an area with plenty of food, they will build a nest. Snowy owl nests are not very complex. Essentially, a snowy owl nest is just a shallow depression on the ground, maybe with some moss or feathers in it. Then the female lays three to ten eggs in the nest and waits. After a few days they start to hatch. From what I could find, most or all of the eggs will hatch, and a bunch of little fluffy chicks will come out. After a few weeks, the chicks will become more independent, slowly venturing beyond their nest. Then, finally, these chicks will leave the nest for good, to become full grown, wild, white snowy owls. That was an overview of the snowy owl. I hope you enjoyed it, and now onto the carrier pigeon corner. Welcome to the carrier pigeon corner. This is where you get to be a part of the show. In other words, I'll be answering questions about birds sent to me by my listeners. It could be about your favorite bird, something about birds you've always wondered about, or whatever else you can think of. Whatever it is, you can submit your question on the podcast website, birdofthdaypodcast.com, or in the link to a forum in the show notes. Sometimes I don't know the answers to these questions, so to answer them, I had to do a little research. But of course, this wouldn't be possible without my trusty carrier pigeon, Earl. Spring's coming, isn't it, Earl? Do we have any spring themed questions from our listeners? Oh, we do. Okay. Got it. Our question today is from Greta. It reads, Why do some birds migrate and others stay in one place? Well, this question is kind of hard to answer. In general, all birds try to save as much energy as they can, and they don't fly halfway across the globe just to see some new scenery. There must be some payoff. Most of the time, it's all about food. If you're a nut or seed eating bird, like a jay or chickadee, there's normally food for you all year round. So normally these birds don't migrate. Likewise, if you're a raptor, like an eagle or a hawk, you can also normally find food all year round. So these birds don't migrate either. Oftentimes, the birds that migrate are the insect and fruit eaters, who have seasonally available food sources. Birds like warblers, swallows, or flycatchers all eat insects, and they don't stay through the harsh winter in the north. Instead, they migrate all the way to Central America, where they spend their winter. Now you might be wondering, why don't all the birds just stay down in the tropics where there's food all year round? Well, imagine if you took all the birds of the entire American continent and put them in that relatively small area. There'd be too many birds. Even the very food rich habitats down there wouldn't be able to support all those birds. So birds migrate north to escape the competition. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, like some warblers or flycatchers that stay all year round, and I would guess that these birds are the few who are eating bugs that are still out in winter. This is a confusing topic in ornithology, and we still have many questions. Still, I hope that explains it a little bit, and now when you see those birds starting to return in spring, you'll know why. Thank you for listening to episode twelve on the snowy owl. I think this is one of the most well known birds in the world, and I'm very, very lucky to have a chance to see one. Maybe you've seen one too, or maybe not. If you'd like to tell me about your favorite bird sighting or any other matter, you can reach me at birdofthedaypodcast at gmail.com. Thank you for listening. And by the way, I'm working on a very special episode that will come out a little later than normal. But until then, I'll see you in the next episode.