Snowy Owl

The snowy owl is a large owl of the Arctic tundra, breeding across the far north of North America, Europe and Asia and occasionally moving much further south in years of food scarcity. It is one of the most recognizable owls in the world, with mostly white plumage, heavier in males and more heavily barred with dark markings in females and young birds, providing camouflage against snow. Unlike most owls, the snowy owl is active during the day as well as at night, an adaptation to the Arctic's long summer daylight, and it hunts mainly lemmings and other small mammals, along with birds, by watching from a low perch or the ground. Its breeding success and population size fluctuate strongly with the boom-and-bust cycles of lemming populations in a given year, and the species has become one of the most closely watched examples of Arctic wildlife responding to environmental change.