Feather Fun Facts

Snowy Owl Migration 

Michael Kralik, Jan. 2022 

The native to the Arctic snowy owl live in the tundra and perch on the ground or on short posts. They are an irruptive species, meaning that while they do not migrate every year; when they do, they go into a place they don’t usually live. When they do migrate it is because of starvation, unusually cold Arctic temperatures and weather, or an abundance of young hatch-year owlets. The favorite food of the owls is the lemming, and its population has a direct influence on whether the owls are irruptive. In boom years for lemmings, female snowy owls are known to lay up to 13 eggs, rather than 3 to 5 in years with low lemming densities.

Snowy owls are very protective around the nest and will even attack wolves and men. Snowy owls are tough and survive temperatures 50 degrees below zero, even (in experiments) 135 degrees below zero, by burning calories at 5 times their normal rate. Many owls remain in the Arctic, preying on ducks and seabirds in pools of water between Arctic sea ice.

Owl perch on the ground—in an open field, on the beach, or Logan Airport—and fly northward to Baffin Island before returning to Logan Airport five months later.

The white feathered owl has narrowed eye-slits and bright yellow around coal-black centers; a beak is hardly visible behind its facial feathers, yet it yawns to reveal an amoxicillin-pink mouth and tongue. Its enormous feet are covered in thick feathers. The male is smaller and paler as the female needs more coloration to camouflage for nesting. They are protected, so airplanes, cars and wires are their natural enemy.
(Tom Warren, 02.04.22 | www.almanac.com/elusive-snowy-owl).