Vagrant Snowy Owl
by M Spadecaller
Title
Vagrant Snowy Owl
Artist
M Spadecaller
Medium
Digital Art - Digital & Photographic Art
Description
The snowy owl is a large white owl. It is also referred to as the polar owl, white owl, and the Arctic owl. Snowy owls are native to the Arctic regions of North America, Finland, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden. They breed mostly on the tundra. It is one of the largest owl species and the only owl with predominantly white plumage. Most owls are nocturnal, but the snowy owl is often active during the day, especially in the summertime. The snowy owl is both a specialized and opportunistic hunter. The availability of tundra-dwelling lemmings directly determines its ability to breed, but in the non-breeding season and infrequently during breeding the snowy owl can adapt to almost any prey, most often other small mammals, water birds and carrion.
Large winter retreats at temperate latitudes occur due to productive breeding seasons, which result in more juvenile migrants. Also, important to note in recent years there have been mass southern migration in the winter. Thousands of snowy owls were spotted in various locations across the United States. They have been reported in all northerly states, and as far south as Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, nearly all the Gulf Coast of the United States, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, Utah, California and even Hawaii. In January 2009, a snowy owl appeared in Spring Hill, Tennessee, the first sighting in the state since 1987. This was then followed by an even larger mass southern migration in 2013/2014 with the first snowy owls seen in Florida for decades.
The snowy owl is a nomadic and migratory bird, breeding at different locations with different mates and often not breeding at all if prey is scarce. Their unpredictable habits make learning about the status of these birds difficult to ascertain. Nevertheless, recent data indicate the species is declining. Depletion of their population is not completely understood, but global warming and other complex environment factors are believed to threaten their existence.
Uploaded
August 30th, 2020
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