Snowy Owl
Description
Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects and other birds, although a few species specialized in hunting fish. They are found in all the regions of the earth expect the polar ice caps and some remote islands. All the owls are carnivorous birds. The coloration of the owl's plumage plays a key role in its ability to sit still and blend into the environment, making it nearly invisible to pray. Owls can rotate their heads and necks as much as 270°. Owls have 14 neck vertebrate compared to human, which makes their necks more flexible. Different species of owls produce different sounds. Most owl's share an innate ability to fly almost silently and also more slowly in comparison to other birds of pray. The beak of the owl is short, curved, and downward-facing and typically hocked at the tip for gripping and tearing its prey.
Snowy Owl
The Snowy owl is also known as the Polar owl, the White owl and the Artic owl. It is a large owl. Sony Owls are native to the Arctic regions of both North America and the palearctic, breeding mostly on tundra. It has a number of unique adaptations to its habitat and life style, which are quite distinct from the other extant owls. Snowy owl is one of the largest species of owl. It is the only owl with the largely white plumage. Most owls sleep during night and hunt at night, but this owl is often active during the day, specially in the summertime. The Snowy owl lays a very large clutch of eggs, often from about 5 to 11, with the laying and hatching of eggs considerably staggered. It's a very large owl. They are the largest avian predator of the High Arctic and one of the largest owls in the world. Snowy owls are about the sixth or seventh heaviest living owl on average, around the fifth longest perhaps the third longest winged. Snowy owl loves to eat lemmings, voles and other small rodents. An adult may eat 1600lemmings a year, or 3 or 5 every day. Snowy Owls can live for 10 years or more in the wild and 28 years in captivity. According to its conservation status it is a least concern animal.
Classification
Scientific name - Bubo scandiacus
Order- Strigiformes
Family- Strididea
Kingdom- Animalia
Class- Aves
Phylum - Chordata
Genus- Bubo
Distribution
Snowy owls are native to the Arctic regions of both North America and the Palearctic, breeding mostly on the tundra.
The biggest threats Snowy owls face may be climate change, which would lead to habitat loss and decrease in prey. During migration and winter, Snowy owls face collisions threats from cars, communication towers, wind turbines and airplanes.
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The Snowy owl is certainly one of the most unmistakable owls in the world. No other species attains the signature white stippled sparsely with black-brown color of this birds, a coloring which renders their bright yellow eyes all the more detectable, nor possesses their obvious extremely long feathering.
