Snowy Owl

Description:

From the Cornell "All About Birds" website: Size & Shape Snowy Owls are very large owls with smoothly rounded heads and no ear tufts. The body is bulky, with dense feathering on the legs that makes the bird look wide at the base when sitting on the ground. Color Pattern Snowy Owls are white birds with varying amounts of black or brown markings on the body and wings. On females this can be quite dense, giving the bird a salt-and-pepper look. Males tend to be paler and become whiter as they age. The eyes are yellow.

Habitat:

Habitat In winter, look for Snowy Owls along shorelines of lakes and the ocean, as well as on agricultural fields and airport lands. Snowy Owls breed in the treeless arctic tundra.

Notes:

Norman Smith, director of the Blue Hills Trailside Museum, released this Snowy Owl, and a Peregrine Falcon, in the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island, in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He rescued them earlier this morning from the runways at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. I am participating in a Master Naturalist training program in the refuge and we just happened to be nearby when Norm arrived to release his birds. Lucky for us!