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Bubo scandiacus
This large, heavy owl is predominately white. Young males and females are heavily barred with brown or black. Adult males tend to be lighter. Wingspan is up to 145 cm (57 in) in length.
Breeds on Arctic tundra and often moves south to southern Canada in winter, along with New England. In some years, they move south into northern or even central US.
We are experiencing a major irruption this year of this beautiful bird here in Minnesota. This afternoon we found four different snowy owls in about 5 square miles. This was a first sighting for my wife, but I'd seen two before in several decades of birding. To see four in one day, was a great experience.
Spotted on Jan 13, 2014
Submitted on Jan 13, 2014
3 Comments
Hope you find them
I did indeed. We're kind of on the west edge of the main thrust of the irruption, but we're seeing more and more snowy owls in our area. In February, I'm going to head north to Sax-Zim Bog in northern Minnesota to try for northern hawk owls and great gray owls and other winter boreal species. Should be lots of fun...
Ahhh you got one of those invading Snowies.