The Snowy Owl is a large white owl with yellow eyes. Adult males are almost completely white, but females and young birds have some dark scalloping. It is typically found in the northern polar regions and spends the winter south through Canada and northernmost Europe and Asia. There have been reports of Snowy Owl as far south as Texas, southern Russia and even the Caribbean.
The Snowy Owl is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2015 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (extent of occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is very large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
If you think our Birdorable birds are cute as adults, what about when they are babies? Below are some baby photos (shared via Flickr) of the Snowy Owl. Snowy Owl females work on nest construction alone. The nesting site is actually a scrape the bird scratches out... Read more »
Here are ten fun facts about the Snowy Owl. Don't forget to check out our customizable Snowy Owl t-shirts and gifts and other cute Birdorable owls. Snowy Owls are diurnal, which means that unlike most other owls they are active and... Read more »
