Arctic-Dwelling Snowy Owl Population Grows in United States and Canada

The four-day "Great Backyard Bird Count" event has already provided experts with telling information. A majority of the participants were from North America, which helped reveal that Arctic-dwelling snowy owls have spread to 25 states in the U.S.

The numbers produced from this past weekend's event were the most in its short history. More than 2,500 snowy owls were recorded in the United States and Canada in what ornithologists believe to be an issue with the food supply in the Arctic. Lemmings, the owl's preferred source of food, are seemingly becoming scarce on the Arctic tundra.

The snowy owl is the largest owl in terms of weight in North America, and they usually spend summers north of the Arctic Circle where they hunt for their prey in the 24-hour daylight. They primarily occupy the northern half of the U.S. in the northern plains, New York, and New England when in the U.S. They're found in other regions only in the winter, including the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, and eastern Canada.

Oddly enough, this species of owl prefers open spaces as opposed to perching in trees. They remain on the ground while they hunt and they also build their nests on the bare ground. Similar to tree-dwelling owls, the snowy owl will sit on the ground for hours while waiting to hunt prey or simply just to rest. More characteristics and behavioral traits of the snowy owl can be found in this Cornell Ornithology evaluation.

The snowy owls are believed to appear in larger numbers in the U.S. and Canada during the winter because when freezing temperatures drastically lower in the Arctic regions, their lemming prey are able to burrow under fresh snow and go out of sight. The owls can then migrate up to 3,000 miles down the Atlantic coast in search of an area that contains a more plentiful source of food.

The slowly warming Arctic temperatures are causing a decrease in the lemming population. Studies have shown a decreasing lemming population in Scandinavia and Greenland, which is believed to contribute to the increasing snowy owl population in North America. But perhaps this won't be an issue for these plump species.

"They will eat pretty much anything they can jam down their throats - ducks, gulls, geese, muskrats, great blue heron," said Scott Weidensaul, the co-director of Project Snowstorm, in this Washington Post article. "They're a very big, very strong, very capable predator. On the Delaware coast, they were seen feeding on a dolphin carcass. That's a new behavior we're documenting this year."

Although many seem to worry about the changing environment, the snowy owls seem to be just fine.