Snowy Owl
"Margaret"
Margaret got her name when she was an owlet as she looked like our Great Aunt Margaret with a blue rinse! Snowy Owl chicks are grey and fluffy when they are born and only later turn into this beautiful white owl. Margaret was born in 2017. She is a bit of a diva and definitely only does what she wants to do! She can be found sitting on the floor most of the time as she's a ground nesting species, but make sure you look closely, she is there!
SNOWY OWL FACTS
Bubo scandiacus
TERRITORY/LOCATION
Snowy owls are native to Arctic regions in North America and Eurasia. They winter south through Canada and northern Eurasia, with irruptions occurring further south in some years. Between 1967 and 1975, snowy owls bred on the remote island of Fetlar in the Shetland Isles north of Scotland. Females summered as recently as 1993, but their status in the British Isles is now that of a rare winter visitor to Shetland, the Outer Hebrides and the Cairngorms.
HABITAT
The Snowy Owl is a bird of Arctic tundra or open grasslands and fields. They rarely venture into forested areas. During southward movements they appear along lakeshores, marine coastlines, marshes, and even roost on buildings in cities and towns. In the Arctic, they normally roost on pingaluks (rises in the tundra).
CONSERVATION STATUS
Least Concern
DIET
Snowy owl are diurnal and hunt during the day and night,
This powerful bird relies primarily on lemmings and other small rodents for food during the breeding season. They are opportunistic hunters and prey species may vary considerably, especially in winter. They feed on a wide variety of small mammals but will take advantage of larger prey like hares, rats, rabbits. Each bird must capture roughly 7 to 12 mice per day to meet its food requirement and can eat more than 1,600 lemmings per year.
SIZE/WEIGHT
It is 52–71 cm long, with a 125–164cm wingspan. Also, these owls can weigh anywhere from 1134-2000g. Females are larger and heavier than males.
NESTING
They mate for life unless one of the pair gets killed, when a new pair bond may be formed. Breeding takes place at varying times of year according to locality, with a clutch, averaging about 4 eggs, being laid in a nest in a hollow tree, old building or fissure in a cliff.
LIFE EXPECTANCY
9.5 years old in the wild
28 years old in captivity
SCIENTIFIC
CLASSIFICATION
KINGDOM
Animalia
PHYLUM
Chordata
CLASS
Aves
ORDER
Strigiformes
FAMILY
Striigidae
GENUS
Bubo
SPECIES
B. scandiacus
DID YOU KNOW?
There is only an estimated 257,000 Snowy Owls left in the wild. Snowy Owls are endangered because when their main food source, lemmings, has a low population these rare birds fly south.
