Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about snowy owls. These are perhaps some of the most well known owls thanks to their frosty physique and their appearance on the big screen; however, we might not know them as well as we’ve been lead to believe. Snowy owls were popularized by the snowy owl from the Harry Potter franchise named Hedwig. This owl is described as a female in the narrative, however, on the screen, most of her actors are male snowy owls - likely because male snowy owls more often appear in the snow white coloration described of Hedwig’s appearance.

Female snowy owls tend to have more banding in their feathers, and thus don’t often give that pure white appearance the way male snowy owls have a propensity to do. There’s also evidence that snowy owls may whiten with age, and males can still have prominent banding, so this isn’t always a surefire way to distinguish a male snowy owl from a female, but it still helps! Also, snowy owls aren’t just any white owl; they’re a specific species. Sometimes Eurasian eagle owls can appear white in color, but they aren’t snowy owls - they’re just white. An easy way to discern the difference between white eagle owls and snowy owls are the ear tufts. Eagle owls have pronounced ear tufts, while snowy owl ear tufts are barely perceptible - giving their heads a cute, round appearance.

One way snowy owls are similar to other owl species, however, is that female snowy owls are larger than males. On average, snowy owls have two foot (61 centimeters) bodies, four and a half foot (137 centimeters) wingspans, and weigh five pounds (2.27 kilograms); and a snowy owl’s preferred way of putting on the pounds includes eating lemmings. Lots, and lots of lemmings. A single snowy owl may eat more than 1,500 lemmings in just one year. That’s an average of more than four lemmings per day. When they can’t find lemmings, snowy owls will eat other rodents, rabbits, birds, and fish; but lemmings are so important to their diets the lemming populations in a single year can actually affect snowy owl breeding. If there aren’t enough lemmings in a season, snowy owls may not breed; when there is an abundance of lemmings, snowy owls may produce more offspring, so these small mammals play a huge role in the lives of snowy owls!

Snowy owls are kind of weirdos in the owl world because they’re more active during the day. During the breeding season, males will put on displays to attract the attention of a female, and, if she accepts him, they’ll raise a clutch of anywhere from three to fourteen eggs - told you the lemmings make a difference! Snowy owls actually breed in cold northern areas. Like the polar bears we’ve discussed in a previous episode, snowy owls are a circumpolar species - living around the globe throughout the arctic region. Snowy owls tend to inhabit more open area habitats such as tundras and snowy grasslands, giving them a good view of their surroundings and allowing them to watch for predators. Snowy owls are strong enough to knock over a full grown man if they need to; they will even attack wolves and foxes to keep these predators away from their offspring.

During the “warmer” months, the female builds a nest on the ground by scraping out a hole in a raised area of land. The eggs are laid approximately every other day apart from one another and thus hatch asynchronously. The female snowy owl performs incubation duties, while the male feeds her - but both parents will defend their chicks. The owlets will leave the nest before they’re able to fly, and will remain in their parent’s territory under their protection and provision until they’re able to fend and hunt for themselves at about two to three months of age. Sometimes, snowy owls migrate south during the colder months, but unlike many birds who migrate south for the winter, they may stay in this region year round. In the wild, snowy owls live less than a decade.

For more facts on snowy owls, check out the links in the description. Thank you to Lenora Gibson for today’s request. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.