Hi I am the Snowy SpokesOwl - sorta like a spokesperson


Well Hello there! I am a snowy owl. Let me tell you it's about time Judy finally got around to giving me my own page. Snowy Owls page. I mean here I am the spokes-owl for this whole site and I didn't even have my own page. Well she explained to me how busy she has been so I have forgiven her as she has done a pretty good job with my page. So lets get going and I'll tell you all about me.

First of all I go by a few different names. Besides snowy owl, I am also known as Artic Owl, Great White Owl, Ghost Owl, Ermine Owl, Tundra Owl, Scandanavian Nightbird, White Terror of the North and Highland Tundra Owl. I am the official bird of Quebec. Judy's friend Olive, probably already knows that since she lives up there and she is a teacher and knows all kinds of things but if for some reason she didn't know that I'm sure she'll be impressed. I mean it's kind of cool that the snowy owl represents an entire Province.

Now let's get on with what I look like. I am a large diurnal (that's daytime for those who didn't know) actually I didn't know what it meant either till Judy told me so don't feel bad. I have a rounded head, with yellow eyes and a black bill. My feet are heavily feathered. My plumage is distinctively white with thin black horizontal bars or spots. Oh by the way I am the female speaking to you today as my male partner is out looking for food for our family. Well it's about time he did something don't you think? We females are more heavily marked in black bars then some of our males that our almost pure white. As I mentioned before we are a very large owl and can grow in length up to 27". We have a wingspan of anywhere from 54-65" now that's pretty darn big, and very impressive when we're flying around as we tend to fly close to the ground and land on low perches. We also weigh in anywhere from 40-70 ozs. See I told you we were quite large I think probably one of the largest of our species. For the most part we are pretty quiet except during mating season when the male is trying to get my attention then there's no keeping him quiet. We also tend to hiss, shriek, and cackle if we get upset or irritated. Sort of like when you humans yell at one another. Cmon now even I have heard you guys from time to time.
The Snowy Owls

Who is that guy in the middle anyway

This is a photograph that Judy took of our family reunion that we just had recently. Needless to say our whole family is quite pleased with our page and have forgiven Judy for taking awhile in getting it together.

Am I not gorgeous?

Me and my kids on a Sunday afternoon

Another Perfect landing of course



..and for more...

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Now as far as our appetites go we prefer to hunt during the day and will swoop down on the water and grab seagulls, geese, & ducks. On the ground we go for rabbits, prairie dogs, moles, and muskrats. We will also raid traplines for trapped animals and follow traplines regularly. Now I myself think that's a pretty good idea. Again the term "wise old owl" comes to mind doesn't it.

When it is time to begin my family my male starts to court me between mid-winter and April. He can be very impressive usually strutting around the ground flapping his wings and bowing and fluffing his feathers. He will also go and kill and display prey for me and feed it to me. I mean how could you not fall for that? We make our nests on the ground or very low level branches. We have to make sure the area is safe and there is plenty of sources of food as I and my young require quite a lot. I normally hatch about 5-8 white eggs but have been known to go as high as 14 if there is a lot of food in the area. I stay by the nest and within 32-34 days my little ones are born. During this time my male is bringing us food and protecting our area very carefully. Our young will venture out after about 25 days and begin to discover the world around them.

In the wild we can live up to 10 yrs. In captivity, in your zoos and such we can live up to 35 yrs. Well it is a lot safer there of course we don't have to contend with the cold and those nasty Artic foxes and wolves.

As I have indicated we like the Artic regions and also live in Canada of course, North America and sometimes even as far south as Texas. We are also found a lot in northern Eurasia.

Well that's about it for snowy owls... I think I've told you just about everything there is to know about us. Well it's time for me to get back to my spokes-owl duties and again thanks for being so patient and I hope my page was worth waiting for.