Creature Feature – Snowy Owl, Ghost of the Tundra

This winter, keep watch for the snowy owl as it hunts swaths of windswept fields and along expansive bodies of water. Also known as the “Ghost Owl,” the snowy is North America’s heaviest owl, boasting a wingspan between 4-6 feet. As its name suggests, it is mostly white with scattered black or brown bars and specks on the body and wings. Females have more of these dark markings, while males are paler and grow whiter with age. Both have piercing yellow eyes. 

Inhabitants of the tundra north of the Arctic Circle most or all of the year, some snowy owls regularly migrate over the winter to southern Canada and parts of New York and New England; and, during some years, in response to prey shortages (particularly lemmings), some of the birds drift southward in an ‘irruptive’ behavior – appearing during some winters, but not others. One snowy may eat over 1,600 lemmings each year! This owl also hunts other rodents, hares, waterfowl, and other birds. Several winters back, a snowy was observed hunting pigeons near an Otisco dairy farm. 

Some snowy owls are being spotted in New York this winter. They are attracted to flat, wide-open places (agricultural fields, shorelines, airports…) that offer higher vantage points (fence posts, hay bales, boulders, outbuildings…) where they perch, watching for prey. They spend a lot of time just sitting and surveilling, whether perched or simply sitting on the snow-covered ground, where they are extremely well-camouflaged. 

Article by Margie Manthey
Photo by Francis Roy-Moreau