Snowy owl

The snow-white sentinel of the tundra

The snowy owl lives in the Arctic tundra — there are no trees, so it nests on the ground and hunts by day. Other owls fly at night, but it sees in the polar day too. Its feathers cover even its feet — 'warm socks'. A snowy owl can hear a mouse 1,000 m away! Harry Potter's Hedwig is a snowy owl.

The snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) is a large owl of the Arctic tundra (65 cm, 1.5 m wingspan, 2 kg — the heaviest owl in North America). Males are almost pure white, females barred with dark. Its main food is lemmings — up to 1,600 a year; in a lemming boom year it lays 11 eggs, in a poor year it doesn't breed at all. It is nomadic: when lemmings crash it 'irrupts' south, as far as the USA and Europe. It hunts by day, with sharp hearing (asymmetric ears) and sight. Due to tundra warming and disrupted lemming cycles it was rated Vulnerable in 2017; about 28,000 remain. It is the symbol of Quebec (Canada).

Fun facts

• A snowy owl eats 1,600 lemmings a year.
• An owl's ears are at different heights — so it knows exactly where a sound comes from.
• A snowy owl turns its head 270° — almost all the way round.